An Old Friend's Request
by Fira Astrali
Summary: Six months since the Aparoid Invasion, & not much has happened around Sargasso, until a strange message from a long forgotten part of Wolf's life is recieved. Turns out past and present are a dangerous mix, as Reg Gen's horrific intentions are revealed...
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Well, here we are again! Thanks for checking out An Old Friend's Request. This is the sequel to The Wolf of Sector Y, and I would suggest reading that story to fill you in on the back ground information.

All character associated with the Star Fox franchise are Copyright © Nintendo.

Storyline, original characters, location names, and anything else not found in the Star Fox games comics etc. are copyright © Fira Astrali.

"Panther, watch out!" Sloan screamed over her comm.

"Wha?" Panther jerked hard on the joystick, sending his Wolfen into an awkward corkscrew to avoid being broadsided by a piece of hull that had ripped off the nearby enemy battle ship, which Sloan had assaulted with a nova bomb. The missing piece of hull had left behind a raw gouge in its side, showing off its once magnificent interior and proving that even if these guys didn't have talent, they certainly had money. The air escaping the deck blew all sorts of debris out into space, and Panther could see more than a few of the battleship's crew members being blasted out along with the bits and pieces.

Sloan, momentarily distracted by her comrade's slip, slammed back against her seat as a missile struck the back of her fighter, sending it jerking forward.

"You prick," she growled, watching a black and red ship dart away from behind her like he had over and over again. Posers the lot of them. Not a single one was brave enough to stick around and leave a chance that she might just get them back.

Star Wolf was currently fending of a newly formed mercenary group that were looking for territory and had tried to encroach on Star Wolf territory in Sector Z. Wolf wasn't going to lay back and lose face to a bunch of rookies, and there had been absolutely no action around the station for months, so he had gone out himself to handle the situation and stretch his wings a bit. Only after the rival group had him out in the middle of nowhere did they bring their two battle ships in radar range and deploy their cargo tug full of fighters, hoping to overwhelm the seasoned professionals. Leon had gone back to the station to get reinforcements, but not without much grumbling about not being the rookie "go-for" and saying how it should have been Sloan's job.

"Looks like you've got an admirer, Sloan," Wolf teased.

"I'll give him something to admire," and she shot off after the bogey. Wolf settled back to the bogey he had his eye on, but just as he had him where he wanted, his radar started beeping a warning signal. Two on his six.

"You people need a better strategy," he said on a public comm. channel. "It gets a bit obvious after awhile." No one answered. He shrugged. "Have it you way." He let the Wolfen's new and untested Nuclear Wave engine unwind, blasting along at twice the speed of anyone else in the space zone. His pursuers, not wanting to loose the chance to take down the great Wolf O'Donnell, boosted to keep up. He watched them try in vain to get back on him, speeding up to there limit to do it. He clicked his tongue. No control at a speed like that without the engine he was sitting on.

He focused on the second battle ship, vertical in space in front of him. He was heading straight for the bulging, fly-like head of the ship. His gloved hands grip the controls tightly, one miss-calculation and it would either end with too much time left over and two bandits on his ass, or not enough time left over. Either way it resulted in a messy end for Star Wolf's fearless leader. He waited, eyes glued to the glass canopy that enclosed the bridge, watching for his signal.

There it was, he was close enough to see one of the bridge crew get up from their seat. He suddenly turned sharply upward until he was parallel with the ship. Even with the top of the line dampeners, the g-forces pulled at his body. The battleship next to him blurred at such a high speed. The two enemy fighters, left without time to slow down, tried in vain to follow the turn, and crashed into the hull of the ship, exploding into balls of flame.

"Like 'skeeters on a windshield," Wolf chuckled, his only criticism that he had been able to cause them to shatter the glass of the bridge. He followed the contours of the rust coloured hull, being careful to stay out of the way of their particle beam and shooting off harmless laser rounds here and there. Their response was a hail of plasma fire. They were pissed over letting him get away with that ploy and were overreacting.

Panther hadn't seen Wolf's little trick, he was too busy with a fighter that definitely wasn't a rookie. The two were tangled up in a dizzying acrobatics display, canopy to canopy. Panther was staring into icy grey-blue eyes on a vulpine face. The fur colouring was more lupine though. The look on his face was one of a cold, angry, mechanical mind. He was focused on his task, and his task was to kill Panther. The macabre smile on his face told the Star Wolf pilot he was enjoying it, too.

Panther tried to catch him off guard by suddenly breaking hard and slipping in behind him, but by the time he opened fire, his target had moved out of the way and mirrored his actions. They were staring each other in the face again.

"Listen, I know I'm beautiful but…" he cut himself off. There was suddenly a blue sheen on the cockpit. He'd activated a shield. Panther screwed up his face in confusion. He wasn't yet a threat to him, so why had he…

By the time he figured it out, the missile had already been deployed. With such little space between them there were no evasive manoeuvres possible. It shot out and struck Panther's under belly. The explosion sent them both flying apart, but the enemy's shield absorbed the impact and the bogey righted himself first. He turned back around for the kill. To bad his prey had disappeared.

Panther had tumbled behind the shrapnel cast off from the first and more badly damaged battleship, and was currently lurking amongst the debris that had gathered, licking his wounds. He was silently thanking god that somehow the missile had missed the "sweet spot" that would have detonated his Wolfen's nuclear core. It had however shorted out some of the energy coils and he was now running low on power. Both lasers would not fire at the same time if he wanted to keep his engine running. He cursed himself for his stupidity and hailed Wolf privately.

"Where are those reinforcements?"

"Don't tell me you're done already." He could tell from his voice that Wolf was having a good time.

"I…" Motion to his left caught his attention. "Got to go, light a fire under Leon will you?" and he closed the channel. Wolf checked to see if Leon was in comm. range. It was odd that he had taken so long to get back out in the fight. The battle had to be going on two hours by now.

He was distracted by a bogey limping past him, wing torn off and sparks jumping away from the ship. Wolf recognized it as the one that had been continually sneaking up on Sloan. The young girl's ship came screaming over him at top speed to intercept. The enemy fighter panicked and tried to manoeuvre his injured and sluggish ship out of her way. Sloan filled him full of laser fire and flew triumphantly through the resulting explosion.

"We don't need reinforcements, we've got them on the ropes!" she shouted gleefully. Wolf shook his head. She had a habit of getting a little overworked.

"Funny you should mention that," Leon's voice hissed at them. He had finally arrived. Following him were three battleships, armed to the gills and bearing Wolf's insignia, and what looked like half of the fighting population of Sargasso in single seat fighters.

"Finally you show up, I'm getting tired of this little frolic. What took you so long?" Wolf questioned.

"There was some commotion at the station. Something about a shipment and a message for you?'

"You've got to be kidding me," Wolf growled. "Alright, let's leave this to the fleet, we've wasted too much time here. Sloan, why the hell do you need a private invitation to do what I tell you!?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez." Wolf glared over at her ship. Over the six months that had past since the Aparoid war came to an end, Sloan had developed a bit more of an attitude as she had become closer to and more trusting of the team. Wolf should have expected it. She was, after all, a 14 year old, and she more than made up for herself with her incredible aptitude for processing knowledge. In those six short months she had learned more than most people could ingest in years. Flight, self defence, the intricate technologies that make the Wolfen tick, she had soaked it all up like a sponge and hungered for more.

She managed to tear herself away from another target and followed him out of the space zone.

"I still think we should stay and fight. Finish what we started, ya' know?"

"You're opinion is duly noted, now keep it to yourself."

The station was a flurry of movement and confusion as the Cargo Crew tried to sort out the unscheduled delivery. It was a few dozen crates, all black steel, all unmarked except for an insignia. Wolf kneeled down next to one of the crates to get a better look at the symbol printed on it. It was gold and chocolate brown. There was a coat of arms with stylized vines curling around a medieval style Z. Wolf was sure he recognized it, but hadn't seen it for years. A young vixen with dyed blue hair ran up to him carrying the data pad that had come with the crate.

"They just-" Wolf grabbed the data pad without letting her finish her sentence. He stood without looking at or talking to anyone. He seemed to be absorbed by the contents of the message on the pad. Sloan had to jog to keep up with his fast strides.

"So who is it from? What's it about?" Sloan asked. She didn't get an answer, he just kept walking to his quarters. Sloan watched him go. Panther couldn't help but laugh quietly.

"Just because you're on his team doesn't mean you can't be ignored,"

XXX XXX XXX

Wolf's quarters were, of course, dim. There was a small light sitting on a coffee table in the living room, and on the rare occasion they were turned on the T.V. and computer screens offered some illumination, but otherwise the only light came from the stars outside the huge bay window behind the couch. He sat down in his study and looked over the message that had come along with the crates. There was no inventory of what the crates were, just a little note:

_Don't open the crates. Ship to this address. Can't wait to see you again._

_XZ_

The address of the warehouse the sender wanted the crates shipped to was added at the bottom of the note.

"XZ," Wolf murmured, searching through his mental stock of every business partner he'd ever had. How many people could have initials like that? Maybe they weren't initials of a person, but some obscure company that he had worked for way back when, and wanted to hire him again, what else could they be?

Then the answer hit him, and it made a smile flash across his face.

"XZ, yes, we have a lot to catch up on, don't we. An odd way to say hello after all these years though." He threw the data pad on the desk and stared at a framed picture on his desk as he contemplated what this meant.

_Going back there? After all this time?_ He looked back at the initials in the note and wondered why it just had to be him that hauled those crates. Those initials came from a time in his life he thought he would never have to face again. His eyes crawled back to the picture, the one he shouldn't have put up in the first place, the blown up version of the one in his pocket. Sweet god, he didn't dare contemplate what would happen in someone were to find it. It fuddled his thoughts even more. Did he want to go back there? That opened a whole new can of worms, a can that he had long ago welded shut and pitched into the nearest fast flowing river in the hopes of preserving that precious picture.

"Funny how shit always seems to find its way back home." Finally, he just shook his head and sighed before pressing a button on his comm.

"Sabre, get the Nicell ready for me."


	2. Chapter 2

"So who's this person again

Author's note: This story is dedicated to Raknam and Finny.

"So who's this person again?" Sloan asked from atop one of the black crates. Wolf glared at her in irritation. So full of questions all the time.

"Xannon Zindia. She and I go way back. She's asked me to take this shipment to The Veris Sector in the Boolie system, as a favour."

"Boolie… never heard of it," Panther said.

"You wouldn't have, it's a long way from here. Sort of a self contained system, doesn't have a lot of contact with Lylat."

"Well, if it's so far away, how come the crates got sent here?" Leon asked. "Surely there's someplace closer she could have sent them?"

"I… don't know, exactly." Wolf shrugged. "Maybe its sensitive cargo. She and I were close friends at one point, it could be she only trusts me with it."

"It better be pretty sensitive. We are getting paid for this, right?" Sloan asked.

"What does favour mean to you, Sloan?"

"It means what's in it for me?" Wolf should have expected such an answer.

You can take the girl out of Sector Y… he thought.

"So let's assume we do this, and I have a feeling I'm not assuming, how are we going to get these crates there? I doubt any of our battleships can make it to this Boolie System," Panther informed them.

"That's where I, in my infinite technical wisdom, come in." Eight eyes all shifted onto a pale coloured, female ape in stained blue overalls. Her pale blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail out of her face, her eyes were a sharp blue. She looked to be close in age to Wolf.

"My team and I have been working 'round the clock to bring you the very best in long range capital ships." She looked over at Wolf and gave a nod. He returned it then addressed his team.

"Everyone, this is Sabrina-"

"Sabre," she cut in. "Call me Sabre."

"She's my chief mechanical engineer. I commissioned her to build us a ship for team use."

"Sweet! So now we have, like, a Great Fox too?"

"The ship's name is Nicell. That goes for the onboard AI, too."

"Where is she?" Panther asked.

"In the underhanger. The cargo is being loaded right now. Wolf, she's on standby to talk to you. I told her you'd be right down." Sabre turned to the rest of the team.

"If you'd all like to see your new ride, come this way." They followed her to a service elevator that was cleverly hidden at the back of the Star Wolf private hanger. Sloan, with all her snooping around those past six months, had never seen it. Then again, she had never really noticed Sabre either, and by the way she and Wolf were casually chatting on the way down, she assumed they had to be pretty good friends. Considering how Leon was politely listening to her, she had to be an incredibly good friend of Wolf's. If nothing else, Leon had respect for Wolf, and that respect transferred to all his friends and business partners.

"Have you met her?" Panther whispered quietly in her ear. Sloan shook her head.

"Have you?"

"I had seen them talking, but that was awhile ago, as in before you even got here." The lift ground to a halt and the wire-cage door pulled back automatically to let them pass. They had been brought to a part of the station Sloan had never seen. It was a hanger only about half the size as the one up top. Sloan shivered, it reminded her of the hanger in the Beltano Orbital Gate, and with that memory came the one of her brush with death during her brief stint as Falco's ally. Her shoulder started to ache just thinking about the Jeffery's tubes she had spent hours crawling through.

"Holy crap," Panther breathed. Sloan followed his line of sight and saw what had demanded his awe. Hanging above them like a puppet on strings was the most majestic ship she had ever seen. It was mostly purple, so dark it looked almost black. Its elegant wings were swept back and reminded Sloan of a hawk swooping in for the kill. The whole front section was plated Clear Steel glassite. They whole ship brought to mind some elegant crystal sculpture, a master's greatest work.

"I modeled her after the Wolfens," Sabre told the silent room. "This baby's loaded. Full series Light Refraction engine, Turbine Cannons, the lot."

"Turbine Cannons?" Sloan asked.

"My own invention as well. It's made specifically for the LR engine. Diverts minimal energy for max results, and I'd like to see someone dodge the resulting graser rounds. And, as an added bonus, the siphoned energy actually makes the engine run more efficiently, not as much excess, you know?"

"Cool," Sloan breathed, like a child that had been shown a new toy.

"So where am I supposed to meet this Nicell?" Wolf asked Sabre.

"She's waiting on the bridge, follow me." Sloan skipped along next to Sabre as she guided them to a ladder that would take them to a catwalk level with the ship, excitedly asking questions about every part of the new ship. The catwalk deposited them at an open airlock.

"After you," Sabre purred as she stepped out of Star Wolf's way. "She's got four decks to her. Bridge, Cargo and Hanger, Leisure, and a nuts-and-bolts deck. You know, Astrometrics, Engineering, etcetera, etcetera. The crew quarters are on the leisure deck. There's eight of them, by the way, just in case you decide you need a little support."

"Can we take a look around?" Panther asked.

"Of course, go." Leon, Sloan, and Panther were gone in a flash to check out what would be there home for the next mission. Sloan streaked off to the lift and was gone.

XXX XXX XXX

Once the doors closed, a voice prompted for a floor.

"Leisure deck please," Sloan decided. The lift moved for only few seconds before stopping silently and opening with only the slightest hiss. Sloan slipped out. The deck was deserted, leaving only the soft hum of the mechanical body she had been swallowed by. The walls were sliver and polished until they reflected the bright florescent lights set into the ceiling. The floor was carpeted in black, and at ankle level was a blue running light than ran the entire corridor, both sides. Sloan did not pause to think what it would be for. The whole corridor looked like the one reserved of the team back at Sargasso. Since they had yet to have security codes punched into them, the doors opened automatically as she passed. They were sleeping quarters like on the station. Sloan chose the door second closest to the lift.

The accommodation was less space than her apartment on the station, but it was laid out well. It was only one room, mostly carpeted, with a small kitchenette in the corner

"Lights," The dimmers turned on and light filled the room. She smiled a little. She like the idea of something doing what she asked, even if it was just a voice activated light dimmer. She dropped into an armchair next to the bed and looked around in satisfaction.

"Claimed this one have you? Wolf doesn't get first pick?" Sloan jumped to her feet and into a defensive stance in response to the female voice that came from nowhere.

"Where are you?" A laser beam shot out from the laser strip on the floor and became a face, a generic, almost featureless face, but a face.

"I'm everywhere." She looked around, "you're in my body. I'm the onboard AI, Nicell. So, who are you?"

"I'm Sloan." She puffed out her chest. "I'm from Star Wolf. Newest member."

"Really?" she said, sounding impressed. The face lost focus, cutting in and out for a second. "If you come up to the bridge, we can talk in person. I want to know about Wolf from someone who knows him well."

"Okay." She headed for the door and slipped into the lift. "So, what do you want to know about him?"

"The most important thing? That would be… is Wolf as scary as everyone says he is?

XXX XXX XXX

Wolf was not so quick to leave, instead crossing the brightly lit hall to a control panel and punching up a map of the ship.

"She's awfully cute," Sabre said.

"Who?" Wolf humoured her, knowing full well who she was talking about but not wanting to talk about it.

"Sloan, dummy. She's so much healthier than when she first got here. You did a good job."

"I didn't do anything," Wolf growled dismissively. "She took care of herself." Even as the words escaped his lips Wolf knew they were lies. Those past six months most of his time had been absorbed with teaching Sloan anything he could think of that she might need, the result had been the beginnings of a bond Wolf had been hoping to avoid. At least, he thought he'd been hoping to avoid it.

"Don't be modest, Muriel tells me how much Sloan looks up to you."

"That's just _dandy_. Let's get up to the bridge." Sabre sighed.

"Let's take the lift," she said, gesturing to a silver door off to the right. The two entered the small lift.

"Bridge," Sabre called.

"Is this Wolf O'Donnell?" a female voice asked as the lift began to move upward, much more smoothly than the one in the hanger outside.

"Yes, it is. Wolf, Meet Nicell Mk 1.7880, a fully autonomous AI that is capable of tending all shipboard functions and, thanks to the Projection Stripes in every room, she has free reign of the ship. Nicell, Wolf."

"I'm pleased to meet you," Nicell said, sounding a little unsure of the right thing to say.

"Same," Wolf answered. The doors dinged open to the bridge. It was a circular room, fairly small as the ship was mostly meant to be run by the AI. There were a few banks of control consoles, an AI Podium, and a padded captain's chair, front and center to the huge View Screen that was currently showing a panoramic view of the space surrounding Sargasso. Sloan was spinning around and around in the captain's chair while talking to the AI occupying the podium, the AI Wolf assumed to be Nicell. She turned to see her new captain. Wolf nearly gagged when he saw her.

She was Lupine, her headfur was dark and was so long the ends tickled her hips. She wore a body suit that followed the colour sceme of the ship. mostly purple, with a little bit of white at the center. She was tall and willowy, with delicate fingers and intense grey eyes. Those memorable features, along with her grey, semi-transparent body, made it look like her sister had come back from the grave and was standing on that podium.

_Why can't I get away from you!?_ As soon as the though echoed in his mind he felt guilt. He shouldn't say something like that about his sister's memory, but he found it hard to look at the AI's projected body. She must have picked up on Wolf's discomfort, because she too seemed on edge.

"Um, I'm pleased to, oh, um, I already said that didn't I." She glanced sideways at Sloan. "Ah, Miss Dykstra was telling me all sorts of things about you. And coupled with my own research, your record is quite impressive, Mr. O'Donnell."

"Embellished I'm sure," he said with a look in Sloan's direction. "And don't 'sir' me either. It's Wolf."

"Yes… Wolf," she caught herself and corrected. She shook her head and took on a more businesslike manner. "Shields are fully charged. The engine's are running at peak efficiency, I had to adjust the output, so the TC's won't fire at optimal speed and range."

"How much are they affected?"

"2.7. Not really enough to worry about, but Sabrina told me to mention everything."

"Sabre," Sabre reminded.

"Sabre," Nicell confirmed into her memory. "The cargo is loaded, but I have no tag for it. What should I call it on inventory?" Wolf thought for a moment.

"Call it 'Zindia'."

"Yes sir. Er, yes Wolf. Anything else?" Wolf flitted through a few more technical details, but couldn't find anything else of real importance.

"How soon can we launch?"

"How soon can you be ready?"


	3. Chapter 3

The next six hours were a whirlwind. Somewhere between cramming all her stuff into a duffel bag, saying goodbye to her friends, and sneaking Logan a kiss, Sloan found herself on a starship, hurtling towards realms of space she had never heard of. She was glued to an observation window, watching the stars fly past in long, thin lines instead of their usual circular shape.

"This is _awesome!_" She squeaked. Sabre, who had been standing with her, laughed.

"You've never been on a starship before?"

"Not a really big one like this. There were shuttles that took us from Sector Y to Corneria, but they were tiny."

"Did the orphanage take you planet-side often?" Sloan turned to look at Sabre, eyeing her suspiciously. No one but Star Wolf knew that she had lived in an orphanage.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Please, Sloan, you're a matter of public record. After Wolf told me you'd come from a rocky background, I did a little digging. It wasn't too hard to find. So in answer to your unasked question, no, Wolf didn't tell me anything, I just wanted to know a bit about the new recruit." Sloan, seeming satisfied with the answer, turned back to the window. Sabre didn't see the new expression on her face, the one of fear mingled with anger. How dare she snoop around in Sloan's past, and what did she know? Did she know about those Red Generation lies King had told not to long ago? She turned back around, but Sabre was gone. Sloan shivered at the sudden feeling of aloneness in a vast universe.

"Nicell."

"Yes, Sloan?"

"Where is Wolf?" The lift doors opened.

"Library, Leisure deck, I'll take you." The lift doors opened without prompting. Sloan slipped in, curling up in the corner. She wasn't sure why, but that crushing feeling could always be remedied by spending time with Wolf. He had a knack for driving away her fears with nothing but a smile, and he made her feel… different. It was a feeling she had never known before. It must be a good feeling, because she was sure she had experienced every terrible feeling her mind had to offer her at the orphanage. Still, when she had tried to ask Wolf about, she never really got an answer out of him, and he always seemed to remember something he had to do, so eventually Sloan stopped asking so he wouldn't keep going away.

The doors opened on the Leisure deck.

"Go down the hall and take a left. It's the second door, right in the middle of the hall, directly across from another observation window, you can't miss it."

"Thanks Nicell." She headed down the hall, hands quivering. She wasn't sure what to say. She took a deep breath before reaching motion sensing distance of the door.

_Just play it cool._ The door opened and she stepped through

The library took her breath away. It was very old fashion, the rugs on the floor were ornate and richly coloured, two of the four walls were delicately carved shelves nursing hundreds of books made of _real paper!_ No one in Lylat had used paper in books for centuries. Near the door was a large mahogany table with six matching chairs. Embedded in the table were multiple data pad docks, meant for downloading new information onto the pad, the new technology cleverly integrated into an antique to keep with the feel of the room. On the other side of the room, surrounded by shelves of books, was a beautiful, crackling fireplace, accompanied by two comfortable looking armchairs. Wolf was seated in the one facing the door. He had taken his coat of and flung it into the other seat, letting it dangle over the arm. An ancient-looking book was sitting open in his lap, but Sloan's entrance had taken his attention off the yellowed pages.

"Yes?" Wolf asked, pretending to sound annoyed by her interruption. Sloan had learned awhile ago to tell the difference between a true tone and when he was keeping up appearances.

"Oh, nothing. To tell you the truth, I didn't know you were here. Just exploring, you know?" There was a moment of silence where Wolf just stared her down, then he turned back to his book. Sloan quietly let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Sloan quickly turned away and went to inspect the nearest paper book. She stared at their titles, which ranged from everything from children's tales to adult horrors, to poetry, to historical books. Every title was gold embossed on the spine, many had flaked away, either partially or almost completely, but all were somewhat readable.

"The Other Side of Luna, a Poetry Anthology," she murmured to herself. She pulled it off the self, holding it delicately in her fingers. The covers of the book were greyish, and the front picture was peeling, but Sloan imagined it as what it must have looked like in its pristine form, black as moonless midnight, with a beautiful picture of a full moon, swollen to near bursting with light. The Author's name was still written clearly at the bottom.

"Antonio Stilmen,"

"You'll like his work. He's very good." Sloan jumped when Wolf spoke. He had been watching the whole time.

"I didn't peg you for a poetry kind of guy."

"Usually I'm not, but," she saw his eyes flash around the room, like he was about to tell her a secret that he didn't want anyone else to hear. "That book was my mother's, so I heard a lot of the stories."

"Did she read it to you?" Sloan asked. Wolf laughed a little.

"Sort of, yeah." Sloan looked at him expectantly, hoping he would finish the story, and for a moment he looked like he might, the information was harmless enough, but he caught himself and turned back to his book, a little smile on his face and a reminiscing look in his eye. Sloan moved his coat and sat down in the armchair across from him, wondering if there were any more stories in amongst all those ancient books.

"Were these books all you're mother's?"

"She collected them."

"How many-"

"No more questions." His tone wasn't angry, but he sounded as if he regretted telling her something about himself. He usually sounded that way after the many slip-ups Sloan pulled out of him.

She was dangerous that way.

XXX XXX XXX

Panther was in Astrometrics, inspecting their flight plan. He was not in the habit of rushing into a new system without any background information, and he thought that Wolf opting to do so seemed awfully rash. Panther only hoped that maybe Wolf had more knowledge of the area than he let on. He was studying a large holo-screen that was displaying many different stars and satellites, natural or otherwise. Most went unnamed, but some groups were circled by different coloured lines. The different colours were to indicate the level of development a system was at.

"So, this cluster of planets over here, that's Lylat?" He pointed to a yellow ringed cloud of dots. Yellow indicated a highly developed system.

"Yes," Nicell said from the AI podium. A red dot lit on the holo-screen. "As a matter of fact, that right there is Sargasso."

"And this Boolie system?"

"Which part?"

"Huh?"

"Boolie is easily three or four times the size of Lylat. Veris is only one very small part, mostly industrial. It's right…" The screen panned across unnamed stars and stopped on another cluster, highlighting the perimeter.

"Wow, that's a sector?"

"Yes, as to the size of the whole system…" The picture pulled out to encircle an enormous group of dots. The system was so large that it actually had different levels of development. Its outer most regions were circled in red, meaning an underdeveloped or unsafe system. Then, moving in some, there was another line in blue, meaning a somewhat developed system. Only the innermost part of the expansive system was circled in yellow.

"Holy shit." Nicell cocked her head, confused by the explicative, but from Panther's tone she gathered that he was surprised.

"It's… quite large yes. Hard to believe that it's all under the control of one royal family."

"Royal family? You'd think that a system that big would have a senate. Who are they?" Nicell's eyes lost focus for a moment, and Panther could see information scrolling over her irises. She came back a moment later.

"Boolie is controlled by the Zindian Empire. The Imperial sector is right here in the center, that's the blue ringed planets there. As you can see, things get less and less civilized as you move out, and by the time you hit the outer rim the whole place is overrun with space pirates and all kinds of riff-raff. Thankfully our co-ordinates in Veris take us to just other side of the blue line, so it shouldn't be too bad." Panther nodded along to her information, until a thought struck him.

"Wait, Zindian? As in Xannon Zindia?"

"Xannon? I'm sorry, I don't know… wait, the name is on the cargo tag. An interesting coincidence. The acting monarch is Lord Revenant Zindia, there could be some family connection."

"_Some_ family connection? There is no way in hell that's just a coincidence. Go ask Wolf about it, I'm sure he would know."

"I'm afraid Wolf is busy right now."

"Doing what?"

"He's in a meeting with Sloan. If you want I can search the information for you."

"That would be good." Panther turned and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To take a closer look at those damn crates."

"It says not to open them."

"Then there must be something very interesting in there."

XXX XXX XXX

The heavy double-doors opened on a nearly empty cargo bay. The steel crates were sitting in the farthest corner. Nicell came scrambling after him, from a true body on the podium in Astrometrics to her stripped down state in the hall and cargo.

"Please, there were explicate instructions-"

"For _Wolf _not to open them. Since he didn't show them to me, how am I supposed to know?"

"Because he knows I would have told you."

"I'm sure he wants to know as much as the rest of us."

"But, Panther, I-"

"So, have you figured out the connection between Xannon and this Revenant guy?"

"You only gave me a minute or two!"

"What about the markings?"

"The markings on those crates are definitely from a Zindian royal."

"Interesting, why would a royal go so far out of their way to send this cargo to somewhere within their own system? Need a crowbar."

"Panther…"

"Quit with the nagging. Crowbar… crowbar…" He found one sitting on a work bench on the opposite side of the room. He picked it up and tested it in his hands.

"You know, I could always x-ray the cargo, so you wouldn't have to open it."

"Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Because I would need Wolf's permission to use the equipment for that."

"Oh my god, stop stalling me already!"

"Okay, okay!" They stared at each other for a moment, Panther silently daring her to say anything else, Nicell trying to think of something else to say. Panther finally turned, slipped the crowbar under the lip of the nearest crate, and wrenched it open. The result was very anti-climactic. The crate was filled only with food rations. Panther heard Nicell make a noise, and he was sure, even though her poorly featured face did not show it, he was sure she was rolling her eyes.

"Happy now?"

"No. Why would she send dehydrated rations all the way to Lylat for special transport? That makes no sense." He opened another one, only to find the same thing. Still not satisfied, he picked another, this time one from farther into the pile.

"Panther, you're going to break something," Nicell hissed, as though there was someone else in the room that she didn't want to disturb. Panther just shook his head. He again peeled off the lid of the cargo, sure there was something important inside. He looked into the crate.

He nearly gagged.

"Oh… oh god… Nicell, call Wolf, now."

"But I told you, he's-"

"NOW!!!" Nicell disappeared. Panther looked back into the crate, stupefied by his horror.

Lying in the bottom of the crate was a little girl. She was dead.


	4. Chapter 4

Minutes after Panther's grim discovery, the whole team was assembled, bending over the crate, stupefied.

The little girl was a thin, sickly feline wearing ill fitting military fatigues. She had black fur that was stained red just above her right ear. She was lying curled up in a ball and looked like her last few hours had been spent in shivering cold. She had a sad expression on her face.

"That's horrible," Sloan murmured.

"Maybe you don't know this Zindia as well as you think," Leon said.

"No… this isn't… how could she?" Wolf turned away, staring at the rest of the crates. _The Zindi I knew would never do something like this…_ "Get the rest of these crates open, now." His tone was even and controlled. They four scrambled to find more crowbars and attacked the piled of crates. One after the other was opened, and one after the other contained nothing but rations. It wasn't until they got down to the last half-dozen crates that they found another.

"Wolf!" Sloan called. Wolf came running. This time the child they found was a fox with dirty brown fur, also wearing fatigues. He too was badly undernourished. The difference between him and the girl was that his heart was still beating. In fact, it was hammering in his chest so hard it looked as if it was ready to burst from his body. His mouth was wide open and panting hard. Sloan reached in to pick him up.

The boy's eyes snapped open, dilated pupils giving him the look of a madman. He lashed out at her, jaws snapping and claws slashing. Sloan shrieked and jumped back. Wolf came up from behind and wrapped his powerful arms around the boy's thin body, trapping his arms at his sides. He lashed around violently, but could not break Wolf's hold. Finally, he stilled, incapable of keeping up such a performance. Sloan kneeled down to looked into the boy's eyes. The boy turned away.

"We're not going to hurt you," Sloan said quietly. The boy did not react. "What's your name?" Again, no response.

"Panther, take the girl and follow me to sickbay, I want to know how she died." At the word 'died', the boy animated again, thrashing around.

"You… killed her?"

"We didn't kill anyone, we found her that way."

"Lady Zindia wouldn't do that! Let me go! I'm not going back, I'll die first!" But again the child soon stilled, body limp from fatigue. His imprisonment had sapped his strength.

"Not…going… uhn." The boy nodded off in Wolf's arms. Wolf checked his pulse to make sure they hadn't lost him, then picked him up and headed for the lift, followed by Panther, arms laden with the first child. Leon stayed behind to open the last few crates. Sloan was at Wolf's side looking sadly at the boy.

"He's going to be all right, right?" she asked fearfully.

"Maybe."

"Thank god those crates weren't air tight," Panther murmured, eyes on Wolf's pathetic burden. "This woman is a freak."

"There has to be an explanation for this. The Xannon I know would never-"

"Tell me, Wolf, when you said you haven't spoken in years, just how many were we talking here?!" There was a pause in the small space. Panther had dared to cut Wolf off, but the argument was valid.

"Nearly 20."

"Oh sweet Jesus."

"How was I supposed to know about this?!" He held the incapacitated boy up to Panther's face. "All I knew about it was that she's an old friend that needed some containers shipped. We'll see how much he knows when he wakes up."

Nicell had two beds and medical droid waiting for them. Concern was etched in her digital face. The droid was a black steel wire frame model, with a blank, nearly featureless wedge shaped face, and no legs. At hip level it had two anti-grav boosters to keep it floating about three feet above the ground. It floated silently over and took the body of the girl from Panther. He motioned for Wolf to put the boy down on the bed closest to the door. The droid placed the girl on a bed across the room, farthest from the door, leaving several places between the two. Nicell instructed the droid to begin scanning both children.

The whole room was silent, listening to the hum of the scanner as it cast a red light over the bodies. Nicell wrinkled her brow in concentration as the information passed her line of vision. The door hissed open and Leon stepped through.

"I finished checking the crates. Nothing," he reported. Wolf nodded. The look of concentration on his face was comparable to Nicell.

"Nicell, how long until we are within the limits of the Boolie system?" Nicell was still tied up in the scan results, so Panther stepped in.

"I'd say about two days to get ourselves into Veris, but we'll be in Boolie by midnight." The scanners clicked off and the droid moved over to the boy's bed, punching some numbers into a control panel next to the bed and readying an I.V. for the boy.

"He's badly dehydrated, so I'm hooking him up to restore some vital fluids. He's very lucky, a few more hours and I'm not sure if he would have survived." Her sympathetic eyes lingered on him for a moment, then turned to the second child, the one that wasn't so lucky. "This one died of a concussion. She fell asleep, slipped into a coma, and never woke up."

"How long until the boy regains consciousness?" Wolf enquired.

"A day, maybe more, not much less."

"Alert me when he does. Send the girl down to cryo-stasis,"

"Where are you going?" Sloan asked Wolf's back as he left the room. He looked back at her over his shoulder.

"To brood." Sloan and the others watched him go. Leon shrugged and followed. Panther turned and smiled at Sloan.

"Come on Sloan, there's no point hanging around here. You like astronomy don't you? I'll show you our flight plan, you might think it's interesting." Sloan knew Panther was just trying to alleviate some stress from the moment, but his cheerful tone sounded morbid to her in light of recent events.

"Um, nah, I think I'll just… you know… thanks though." Panther shrugged.

"Fair enough," and he too left the room. As soon as the door closed, Sloan's skin began to prickle.

_I, am in a room, with a _dead_ person._ She steered clear of the girl and instead headed over to the boy. His eyes were slightly open, but the glazed look said that he was far away. She glanced towards the door. _This is stupid, and it's none of my business, and… and…and I really don't want to know._ But her eyes pulled her attention back to the boy. Slowly she crept forward, her hand following the edge of the bed. The boy's eyes flicked, Sloan jumped back, but his eyes didn't register her, so she crept back up. One last glance to make sure the room was empty. Sloan slipped her hand gently under his back and pulled up, rolling him over slightly.

She gasped and yanked her hand back like he had suddenly caught fire. Unsupported by Sloan, the boy fell back, but did not roll off his side. There, tattooed to the back of his neck, exactly where Sloan knew it would be, was a barcode.

XxX

His consciousness came before his sight. The inky blackness without the chill of an unheated cargo room made him wonder if he was dead. The slow breaths slipping in and out of his mouth were the first things to bring him to the realization that his was still, in fact, among the living. He blinked a few times, his eyes dry from being partially open for hours on end. Light slowly began to filter into his poorly functioning retinas. It was bright after days in complete darkness, too bright. He snapped his eyes shut again, rolling his head back and forth along the ground to clear his head of the multicoloured spots that were glittering just behind his eyelids.

Only, it wasn't ground. It was far too soft to be any kind of floor or terrain. He tried several more times before he was able to keep his eyes open.

He had never seen such a strange place. Everything was white, clear, or steel silver. The whole place smelled like antibiotics and air freshener. The room was circular, revolving around a central office. Beds were staggered throughout the room, surrounded by medical apparatus. The carpet was an odd shade of blue that he guessed was supposed to be soothing. He swallowed, and found that his throat wasn't as dry as it usually was. He reached over and scratched at a bug bite on his hand.

He wrinkled his brow. His fingers had connected with some kind of film strip on the back of his hand. He looked down and saw that it was no bug bite, but something piercing into his flesh. It looked like a tiny needle, taped in place by the plastic strip. It was connected via a clear tube to a bag hanging on a metal hook neck to his bed. He just stared at it for a moment, sure he was hallucinating.

_Medication? For me._ Then he remembered, he wasn't back _there_. The few nights in the container floated through his memory, then the surprise that had awaited him when the lid was lifted came back. That man must have brought him here. Wherever here was. He lifted himself up on his elbows and peered into the office. There he spied what he was looking for, a clear pitcher of fresh water. He glanced at the door, wondering if there would be any guards coming in to check on him. He carefully slipped off the bed, crouching so he was hidden from view. He reached into his faded shirt and pulled off a set of three circular things on his chest. Another medical apparatus flatlined after the pads lost contact with his skin.

He cocked his head, wondering what all the medical fuss about him was all of a sudden. Usually his best bet when he was injured was to keep it to himself and hope no one came along and tried to make it worse

The flatline tone stopped, replaced with one, long beep, then silence. There was a whir as something powered up, and a blip like a display turning on. He looked around, not sure where the sound came from.

"Where did you go?" He jumped a foot at the sound of a female voice. He was sure the door had not opened. He poked his head over the top of the bed. Nicell caught sight of him and smiled gently. "There you are. How are you feeling? You've had a rough little while. Would you like something to eat? I can get you something." He blinked at her sweet, kind tone.

"F-food?" he glanced back at the pitcher sitting on the table. "Water."

"You want water? Okay, okay I'll get that for you." Nicell's eyes faded for a moment, and there was some movement in the office.

"So, what's your name? Do you have a name?" Nicell asked. A silent pause followed.

"A name… no."

"So what do I call you?" The boy shrugged.

"Whatever you want I guess."

"Okay, for now we'll call you Fennec." Fennec paused for a moment, then nodded. He liked the idea of having a real name, even if it was only his species. The med droid wafted into the room, carrying a tray of food and the water pitcher. Fennec slipped back onto the bed, his mouth watering at the sight of sustenance. The droid placed it at the foot of the bed and left. Fennec snatched it up and stuffed it in his mouth in handfuls. Real food had been nothing but a dream for all his life, now they were just _handing _it to him. He wasn't sure where he was, but back in the hands of his former masters wasn't a location option.

"Where is Lady Zindia?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

"I'm not sure exactly, but the man coming will probably know." No sooner had she spoken of him then Wolf entered the room. Fennec stopped eating, staring at the large, imposing man that had just appeared. Purple eyes scanned him, looking for what, Fennec didn't know.

"Ah, Wolf, Fennec was just asking about-"

"Fennec? That's your name?"

"So she says. Where is Lady Zindia?"

"Why? What does someone like you have to do with Zindia?" Fennec narrowed his eyes.

"If she wanted you to know, she'd tell you," he hissed. Wolf reacted by placing his hands on either side of the table and bringing his snarling face within inches of Fennecs dirty muzzle.

"Listen you little shit. I saved your life. If you'd spent just a bit longer in that box, you would have kicked the bucket thanks to sweet Lady Zindia, so show me a little respect." Fennec leaned in too, to show he wasn't afraid.

"I don't believe you. Lady Zindia is trying to help us. Anything she did wasn't on purpose."

"Help you out of what?" Fennec sat back, jaw clenched in an I'm-not-telling-you-squat gesture. Wolf nodded in that way people do before they haul off and hit someone. Fennec braced himself for the strike, squeezing his eyes shut.

"He's not gunna' do it." Fennec opened his eyes. A second person had entered through the doors. She was a lot less intimidating than the man. She was leaning on the door sill, where it had just disappeared into the wall. She was on the shorter side in contrast to the man, and looked a lot less healthy. She looked as if she was a refugee, recovering from life in a prisoner of war camp. Her hair was streaked with blue and cut so it was short in the back and slanted downward as it came forward. The black jacket was twice too big for her, but gave her less of a willowy look. She looked tired, but there was a small smile playing around her mouth.

"Sloan, what do you want?"

"Uh, Panther's actually the one who wants you," Wolf glared at Fennec for a moment, then headed for the door. He paused next to Sloan and put his hand on her shoulder, whispering something in her ear that Fennec could not hear. She nodded vigorously, but stayed put. Wolf shook his head in surrender and left. Sloan turned her head and cocked it to the side, watching him go. Thanks to her odd hairstyle, the back of her neck was clearly visible. Fennec's eyes zeroed in on the barcode tattooed there. His fingers crept up to his own tattoo. He knew exactly what it was, a communal mark of slavery.


	5. Chapter 5

Wolf ran his fingers through his hair, fingers slipping across the metal holding in his unnatural eye. Panther had only wanted to tell him that they had crossed into Boolie, and now Wolf was wrestling with himself. Should he contact Xannon and get the whole story?

"No," he said to his darkened quarters, "no, that would be foolish. I'd be volunteering information." _But then what do I do?_ He needed to get more out of the child, but Fennec was fiercely loyal to Zindia. It didn't make sense that he would be loyal to someone who had intentionally done something to try and hurt him, but this fact made Wolf want Xannon's explanation even more. Who would put a child in a box with no hope of survival and not mean to cause them harm?

Sloan's odd behaviour added another element. There was something about Fennec that was affecting her. She had spent most of the hours between finding Fennec and his waking lurking around the Wolfen bay, fretting about something and hiding when Wolf entered. He had called to her, but she had not come out. If he had really wanted to, he could have found her, but he let her be. It was really strange for her not to come to him with a problem that was bothering her, and he had an idea of what it could be.

_That Fennec has connections to Red Generation. He must have a barcode like Sloan. She's afraid all those things King said about her are true._ He stood up, pacing uneasily. Limited information on the enemy was not to his liking.

"Nicell," his voice was soft, and when she did not respond he thought the darkness had swallowed his words, until;

"Yes, Wolf?"

"The status of the child?"

"Fennec or Sloan?" Wolf growled a bit. Was it so obvious that even the onboard AI had seen it?

"You know who I mean."

"Fennec is asleep. Sloan has gone to Cargo." Silence for a moment. "There are fewer places to hide in Cargo, maybe she has become less agitated?" There was a lot of suggestiveness in her voice. Wolf rolled his eyes.

"Sabre got to you didn't she?"

XxX

Light poured into the nearly black Cargo hold as the double doors hissed open to admit a sleep deprived Sloan. She shot in and took an immediate right, cowering in the icy blackness. She huddled up in a ball to protect herself from fear and cold, trying to fight the flashbacks.

She could feel King's hand around her throat, his hateful words in her ears as she struggled helplessly, pinned to one of the darkened corners of Sector Y. The transgression was unimportant.

"You think you can escape me? You think you can get away? You'll never escape. You're not smart enough." He shook her and tightened his grip, "not brave enough, not good enough to get away. And when you finally figure that out and _die,_ no one is going to notice you ever even existed."

Sloan gasped a breath through a constricted airway as the door opened and she shot away. The lights clicked on, leaving her stranded in the middle of the floor on hands and knees, scrambling to get away. She heard footsteps, and hands closed gently around her shoulders.

"Sloan," her throat relaxed at the sound of Wolf's voice.

"He's right, I can't get away. He's everywhere, Red Generation is everywhere. Even way out here I can't get away."

"Sloan,"

"I don't want him to be right. I'm not killer, not a murderer, not crazy. I don't… don't wanna'…" She looked up at him with defeat in her eyes. "Fennec, his barcode, it's proof that Red Gen is real."

"I knew that it was real months ago. I never doubted for a second, and neither should have you, but that doesn't mean what King said is true." He let go of her and got to his feet. "Stop acting this way. Get up. King isn't here, and he and Red Gen won't get near you as long as I'm here."

"R-really?"

"Of course." She picked herself unsteadily off the floor, wiping tears bravely from her eyes.

"I shouldn't be afraid of him, he's got nothing on Star Wolf," she looked up at him, "or on you."

"Don't go sucking up now." Wolf was gently guiding the still partially dazed Sloan out of the Cargo hold when a thought struck him. "Sloan, seeing how you and Fennec are at least partially in the same boat, you think you could get anything out of him?"

"I don't know. I guess I could try. I want to go see him anyways."

"Getting attached, are we?" Wolf leaned Sloan against the lift railing as he punched in the code for the med bay.

"It's different when you know someone has gone through what you have… kind of."

"Uh-huh." _I guess I know the feeling._ The doors slipped open and Wolf picked up the now adrenaline exhausted girl. Her odd recent behaviour didn't help to silence King's words, which had lately been bouncing around in his head.

_Dangerously unstable. Disturbed._

"And the list goes on," he muttered. Fennec woke up as soon as the med bay doors opened, sitting up and watching the two intently. Wolf placed her on the bed next to Fennec.

"You may have to give her something," he told the droid that had been adjusting Fennec's I.V. It nodded its understanding and went back to its work. Fennec glared at Wolf for reasons he couldn't fathom, and at that point he really couldn't care less. He didn't look back as he walked out and turned the corner out of sight

Sloan had only one other visitor, Sabre came in hours later. Fennec pretended to be asleep and watched Sabre bend over Sloan and whisper in her ear. Sloan mumbled an incoherent response. Sabre reached over and pulled a blanket up over Sloan to keep her warm. She patted Sloan's head like she was placating a toddler that had woken crying from a nightmare.

After making sure Sloan was asleep, she slipped into the office and appeared a few seconds later, wheeling an office chair behind her. She pulled it up next to Sloan's bed and sat down, elbows resting on the mattress. Fennec waited patiently to see what would happen next, but Sabre did nothing else, just sat there and watched Sloan breathe.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked. Sabre looked up, surprised.

"Oh, Fennec, I thought you were asleep," she said, still speaking softly.

"How do you know my name? I've never seen you before." Sabre smiled and leaned back in her chair.

"Well, there's this little thing called 'conversation', quite the fascinating little thing, all sorts of stuff pops up after you get engaged in it." Fennec narrowed his eyes.

"You're mocking me."

"Clever little bugger, you are." She glanced back at Sloan. "As to what I'm doing sitting here, the best answer would be not much. Just doing a little checking up for a friend, I figured she would like it if I stayed around for awhile."

"What does she care? She's asleep."

"Just trust me on this one, kid." She glanced down at her watch. "Well, Varis isn't that far away now. You'll be seeing your Lady Zindia soon, although why you would want to I simply cannot fathom."

"She's going to give me my freedom."

"From what I wonder."

"If you don't know, you're not supposed to." Sabre couldn't help but laugh.

"No wonder Wolf finds you so _infuriating_. Well, I'm not nearly as serious as he is, so I just find you funny." At that she turned away from him and back to Sloan, who was still peacefully dreaming.

"Is she a slave?" Sabre wrinkled her brow at Fennec's question.

"What do you mean?" Fennec rubbed his neck.

"That barcode, on her neck. Does it mean she's a slave like me?"

"I can't say I know all the facts about it, hun, but I can tell you one thing, she's not a slave."

"Did that man save her?"

"You mean Wolf. Um, I would say yes."

"From King?"

"Who?" Sabre didn't see Sloan cringe in her sleep at the mention of her tormentor's name, but Fennec saw the movement. It wasn't until Sloan let out a whimper that Sabre was clued in to her discomfort. "Who is King?" Sabre repeated as she took Sloan's hand and held it in hers. The gentle touch seemed to calm her. Fennec slumped back into his heavenly soft bed. They were doing what he wanted, they were taking him back to Lady Zindia. Why should he not trust them, at least a little?

"The question isn't who he is, but what, as far as I'm concerned. They say he's a man, but I think he's a demon that feeds of the pain and suffering of others, it's the only way he can get so much joy out of it."

"He sounds awful."

"He's worse than words can describe. Lady Zindia saved us from him, that's why I was in the crate, me and the other one."

"Really… how come you never told Wolf this?" Fennec glanced over his shoulder at the closed doors before leaning in and whispering to her;

"Because he looks like King. I thought, maybe… well, I don't know what I thought."

"It's understandable that you would be scared." Just then, her comm. bracelet started to beep. She covered it quickly with her hand to stifle the sound and glanced back at Sloan, hoping the piercing noise hadn't woken her. Sloan simply coughed and rolled over.

"We'll have to continue this conversation later. Get some sleep."

"All I've had to do is sleep, can't I do something else? Maybe I could follow you for awhile."

"Sure you're not just trying to gather intel?" Fennec shook his head no. Sabre chuckled and glanced at the medical droid. It nodded that it was okay for him to go. "Alright, come on." Fennec jumped off the bed and scrambled after her.

XxX

Wolf was sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge, watching Nicell work and feeling utterly useless. She was standing silently, arms crossed over her chest, running endless diagnostics and making adjustments as necessary, leaving no need for organic control of the ship. He was about to get up and go find a comfortable spot in the library when the doors opened, admitting Sabre who was followed by a scruffy looking fox Wolf identified as Fennec.

"What's he doing here?"

"Oh, he's just checkin' things out. You know, he and I had the most fascinating conversation about all kinds of things."

"Conversation? You mean he gave you more than a bunch of snotty remarks?"

"Oh yeah, all sorts of stuff." She sat on one of the steps leading up to the A.I. Podium. Fennec sat down next to her, stealing her attention and making her laugh in order to get her affection. It reminded Wolf of Sloan. "We talked about why Lady Zindia is so nice, and about a man named King."

"King huh. How come you talked to her and not me?"

"Because you're scary," Sabre giggled, "Everyone knows I'm much more approachable." Fennec watched Nicell work silently with his head cocked.

"Why are you see through?" he asked. Nicell did not hear him. Sabre looked over her shoulder.

"She's see through because she's an A.I." Fennec made no move to show he'd understood, just sat there, his head leaning on Sabre's shoulder.

"He's taken quite the shine to you."

"It's just like when we were kids, Wolf. Show them a little love and they give it back 100-fold."

"This is different."

"I wonder." Wolf shivered at Sabre's simple, yet to him spine chilling words. "So," Sabre asked, "why'd you call me down?"

Actually, it was me. I have a few manual corrects that need to be done to the ship's core," Nicell told her, "You are the most qualified person on the ship to handle such things, correct?"

"That I am. Well Fennec, looks like you get to learn something new today." Nicell motioned to a data pad that she had downloaded with all the new corrections.

"There you are. By the way, we are entering the space zone of the planet Berman. It was located at the co-ordinates you gave me. Would you like a visual?"

"Yes please," Sabre said. A moment later the view screen blipped on. A standard sized planet, purple in colour, occupied the view screen, magnified enough so that it took up most of the screen. Wolf could see white, unpolluted clouds blowing around its atmosphere, belying its sickly colouring. Somewhere on that planet was Xannon Zindia, and all the answers he needed.

"Nicell, take us down."


	6. Chapter 6

Sloan was awakened by the _Nicell_ shuddering through turbulence.

_Must've hit an air pocket_, she thought to herself, rolling over and nuzzling up to her comfortable pillow. Her eyes flashed open. There are no air pockets in space. She sat up, looking around the med bay, silent save the buzzing of machinery, and wondering how on earth she got there. She remembered only a smattering of what had happened to her in the last few hours. She pushed off the bed and stretched out her refreshed limbs.

"Hey Nicell, what's going on?"

"We have entered the atmosphere of Berman in the Veris Sector. You might wish to head to the bridge, everyone else has assembled there."

"Right," she said, and left the room for the lift. Leon turned as Sloan appeared on deck.

"Well hello, sleeping beauty, had a little break down did we?"

"Shut up, Leon." Sloan looked out the view screen, but saw nothing but clouds. "So where are we headed? What city?"

"Berman is an industrial planet, remember? It has no cities, just zones," Panther informed her. "We're heading for Zone 12, which is mostly storage and warehouses."

"When do we touch down?"

"T-minus three minutes," Nicell said. Sloan watched the view screen excitedly, watching closely for the first signs of ground. She glanced back at Wolf, only to have her happy bubble popped. Wolf was slumped back in his chair, a stormy expression on his face. This was suppose to be a joyous reunion between two old friends, but Fennec and the death of the little girl had thrown a dark cloud over the whole thing. Sloan walked over and leaned into him so that the others couldn't hear.

"Are you okay?"

"Why would I _not_ be okay?" he snapped in that vicious tone he used when he was definitely not okay.

"You sure?"

"Quite, now stop needling me." He got up then and walked away from her and over to the A.I. Podium on the other side of the room, arms crossed in anger. Sloan knew he wasn't mad at her, but the situation. That didn't mean his actions didn't hurt.

The clouds parted to reveal and endless landscape of warehouses. The day was dark and grey. Sloan could see people walking around, shoulders hunched against the chill and drizzle. Nicell directed her metallic body into a ship dock and rested down in an open birth.

"Docking clamps engaged."

"We'll be back later." Wolf said vaguely. "Just to let you know, team, it would be wise not to bring any valuables, as this dock's pickpockets are exceptionally talented." Sabre and Fennec were waiting at the airlock for them. Fennec was fiddling with the data pad Nicell had given them.

"Just wanted to see how the patient was doing," she explained, smiling at Sloan.

"I'm fine, thanks a lot." Sabre leaned over and blew the caps off the air lock.

"Have fun," she said cheerfully as Leon and Panther slipped through unobstructed. Sloan was about to follow when Wolf grabbed her arm.

"Wait." He glanced over at Sabre before pulling a black bandana off his neck. It had on it a skull and crossbones, which he folded under before he tied it around Sloan's neck. "To hide your barcode. Boolie is a dangerous system, and there's no telling who knows what, its best to keep it covered until we know people's intentions." Sloan touched the worn fabric gently. It looked like Wolf must have had it for a long time.

"Thank you." Wolf said nothing, just stepped up to the mouth of the airlock and waited for her.

"Stay close." Sloan had never been in a dock before. The bustling commotion of thousands of people coming, going, working, all under one giant, domed roof amazed her. Everyone was yelling at everybody else, adding to the din.

"Wow," Sloan breathed, "This is amazing."

"Quite the place, huh?" Wolf said. _It's just like I remember,_ he thought "Come on, if my memory doesn't fail me, the exit's this way." They followed him through a crush of bodies and cargo. Sloan looked up and saw a young man sitting on a large stack of crates that were netted over and being moved onto a space tug. He was yelling to the person operating the crane. He looked canine, but it was hard to determine his exact race, as he was high up and hard to see through the thick amber smoke that hung in the air. Wolf guided them to a wire cage lift that took them down to the exit below the platform

The air outside was a little fresher. Sloan took a deep breath and coughed up some red dust. The exit had deposited them in the middle of a bank of warehouses. Across a dirt road, the great steel structures stretched out endlessly in every direction. Several shady looking characters of varying ages sat around the entrance to the silver dome, and more people loitered around in small groups among shadows across the road, giving the team some strange looks. Sloan took a step closer to Wolf.

"Where are we going, and when are we going to get there?"

"Knowing Xannon, the car should be pulling up right about…" He pointed out into the street. A long black car with tinted windows appeared out from behind a warehouse and turned the corner, heading towards them. On either side of the hood were flags bearing the Zindian insignia. All of a sudden, the people disappeared, as if fearful of the flags fluttering on the car. The car stopped in front of them. The doors opened.

"Come in," said a female voice. Wolf's mouth twitched, and Sloan picked up on it immediately. Something was wrong, but Wolf motioned them to get in. Leon, Panther, then Sloan ducked into the car and sat down. Wolf came last, staring down the woman sitting across from them.

Xannon Zindia was a beautiful woman. Her hair was dark and long, and her eyes were a lovely green colour. She was wearing a dress of the Zindian colours. She smiled gently at the four of them. Wolf did not return it.

"I'm so glad you could come, it's been so long," she said.

"That it has," Wolf returned.

"Who are your team-mates?"

"Leon Powalski and Panther Caruso" Wolf pointed to each of them in turn.

"And her?" Wolf shrugged at Xannon's question.

"Just another greenhorn." Sloan picked up on Wolf's stony tone. She tipped her head down in a submissive way, and pulled her coat sleeves over her hands. She put her whipped puppy look back on, and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. The look in his eye told her she had read him correctly.

"I see. So, how is my cargo?"

"Still sealed. Where are we going?"

"To my home, we have business to discuss."

"Business?"

"There is a matter of your payment, isn't there?" Wolf laughed, his head rolling back to look out the rear window, before coming back around to look at her.

"Lady, I don't know who hired you, but take me to Xannon, now."

"What, Wolf I-" He put his hand up to stop her.

"The unmarked car behind us, it's been following us for the last 20 minutes. She's in there, isn't she?" It was hard to read the look on her face, but she pressed a button on the armrest next to her. Sloan saw the chauffer turn his head in their direction, then she felt the car turn off to the shoulder of the road. The car behind did the same. Wolf pushed the door open when they came to a stop. The passenger door of the second car opened too.

The woman who stepped out of the car was a lot different than the body double sitting in the limo. Her fur was a lot darker, so much so that looking at her was like looking into a black hole. Out from the darkness stared two icy blue eyes, full of intelligence and compassion. There was something else hiding in those eyes, something a little more sinister, but Sloan couldn't figure out what it was. Instead of a dress like her double, Xannon was wearing black body armour with brown additions. At her side was a sheathed plasma sword, its hilt and sheath ornately carved. Wolf leaned against the first car, unimpressed by the show.

"You'd think if someone was to hire you a body double, she'd at least have the same coloured eyes as you." Xannon laughed, tossing a lock of black hair over her shoulder.

"Ten years, Wolf. Ten years since we've spoken, or seen each other, and still you remember the colour of my eyes."

"I remember a lot of things about you."

"Which is why, if you were for real, you'd see right through the little test I set up for you, you of course understand. I assume you opened the crates?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Simple, I explicitly told you not to." Wolf laughed a little, a smile spreading across his face before he could stop it. Xannon turned towards the car, but her head turned back to them. "What about the children, are they alright?"

"So you knew about them?"

"Of course I know. Are they alright?" Wolf paused for a moment, measuring Xannon's reaction was key.

"One is dead," he said. His heart lifted a little at her reaction. Xannon spun back around, shock and horror in her eyes. She had not expected or wanted the child to die.

"How?" she breathed.

"Concussion. She died in her sleep," Panther said. Xannon shook her head sadly

"The other?"

"He's fine," Wolf said, "taken quite a shine to my mechanic." Xannon nodded.

"I have to see him. Get in, I'll take you back to the dome, bring him to me." Xannon turned and reached for the door handle, but Wolf reached out and took her arm.

"Aren't you going to tell me what's going on?"

"In time, but right now you just have to trust me." They stared at each other for a moment, Sloan could see the wheels grinding in Wolf's head. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright, let's go." Once again they all piled into a car, this time the unmarked one. Wolf again introduced his team, with one exception.

"And this is Sloan, she's new."

"Please to meet you." They pulled back up to the dome. Wolf opened the door and got out. Sloan went to follow, but he stopped her.

"Stay here, this won't take long." Sloan sat back down, glancing uncomfortably over at Xannon, who seemed to be coolly surveying her. There was something about the Zindia that seemed to frighten her. She was tall and willowy, but even her smile seemed to exude a kind of confident power. Her head was cocked to the side, and her black hair hung down over her shoulders like a veil made of the very fabric of space.

"So, Wolf says you're the Greenhorn. How old are you?" Xannon asked.

"16," Sloan mumbled. Xannon's smile got a bit wider.

"Let's try that again, the truth this time."

"It is the truth."

"Of course it is." She turned then to Leon and Panther. "So how long have you been a team?"

"Panther hasn't been here too long either," Leon informed her, a definite air of superiority about him. "_I_, on the other hand, have been Wolf's partner for years."

"I see. I have also known Wolf for a very long time." Sloan watched as in Xannon's eyes shone a glimmer of bygone days.

Xannon's head jerked the tiniest bit as the door latch let go, pulling her back into the present. She looked at little embarrassed, and discreetly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Leon and Panther had not, and Sloan simply looked away to hide the fact that she had. The door opened and Wolf and Fennec entered.

"Lady Zindia!" Fennec yelped. He jumped into her arms. She held him tightly.

"It's good to see you alive," She sad, kissing his forehead.

"The other one, she's dead, they hit her hard. She was bleeding. Just managed to crawl into the crate."

"I know, dear, I know. Wolf has already told me everything."

"So, when are you going to return the favour?" Wolf asked.

"Of all the things you are known for, patience is not among them, but I ask you to use what little you have. We will be there soon. Bear with me until then." Sloan only noticed then that the car had begun to move again.

"And where is there?" Wolf pressed.

"Block D, Sector Six, my base of operations." The car pulled off onto a back road. "My driver won't take us much farther. I'm trying to keep people out of this as much as possible, but I need help." She glanced over her shoulder at the glass separating them from the driver, then she looked over at Wolf.

"It's my father, he's out of control." Wolf rolled his eyes.

"What's that old bastard done now?" Xannon glanced down meaningfully at Fennec. Wolf bristled, but said nothing, understanding the unspoken message. They drove around, speaking sporadically, Wolf unable to keep his mind on anything. Xannon was right, he was not a patient man. Finally, as the last rays of the resident star faded over the horizon, the chauffeur pulled to the shoulder of the road. He got out, then walked around and opened the door. Xannon motioned for her guests to get out. She got out last, Fennec still clutching her hand.

"Thank you Brian. And if father asks?" she quizzed her driver.

"You needed air, Lady Zindia," the young, dark furred vulpine answered without missing a beat. He didn't even look at Xannon's guests, just got back in the car and left.

"Stay close, I read most of the people working in this area are from the Outer Rim," Panther cautioned the party.

"What's so bad about the people from the Outer Rim?" Sloan whispered in Wolf's ear.

"In truth, nothing," Xannon answered, causing Sloan to jump. "But they have a lot of stigma against them. My father has gone so far as to say anyone who tries to leave the rim will be killed. If you head into the Imperial sector, he's got them out for the whole world to see, all bloodied and in so much pain. It's all horribly medieval." She looked around, into the shadows that many had taken to hiding in. "A lot of these warehouses have been abandoned for one reason or another, so they have been converted into makeshift homes for illegal immigrants coming in from the rim, right under the nose of my father."

"And I'm guessing you own one of these retrofitted warehouses?" Panther said. Xannon nodded, and from her breastplate produced a key card.

"It's just over here." They rounded one final corner, and were confronted by a huge black building. It was in relatively good shape, not rusted or crumbling like the others nearby. It was big enough to house a small army. Xannon stepped up to the door and pressed her key card to the scanner when it prompted her to do so. The door opened and she motioned them inside.

Immediately inside was a large, high ceilinged room, empty except for a few boxes stacked in a corner. The floor was cement and the only light came from some large windows high up near the ceiling. On either side was a set of floor plank stairs going up to a wrap around catwalk. Several doors could be seen on the second level. There were three doors on the ground level, one under each staircase and one on the opposite side of the room, between the stairs.

"Seems innocent enough," Wolf muttered. Xannon had been speaking quietly to Fennec while Star Wolf surveyed the scene. He was looking uncertainly between Xannon, The Star Wolf team, and the farthest door. Xannon was smiling at him, reassuring him.

"So," Wolf said, "how much longer before we get some information?" Xannon turned her head a little and looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"How much do you know of Red Generation?"

"Not much, why?" Xannon stood, Taking Fennec's hand in hers.

"Red Generation specializes in war. Weapons, machines, and, most importantly, troops."

"You mean like a mercenary training group?"

"Sort of, except most of there students are not willing participants." She held up Fennecs hand to draw attention to him. "They are always on the lookout for children that no one will miss. Orphans, you know? Children who no one will come looking for. They strip them of there names and everything that makes them people, then they train them in basic combat and sell them to the highest bidder. The kids are so young and so poorly trained that most end up as cannon fodder. They set up shop in Boolie about five years ago, after my mother died. She swore they would never get into the system, but my father cares only about money, and they pay him well. It seems there is lots of money to be had in turning children into mindless weapons."

"Of course there's big money in it," Leon hissed. "As long as there is greed there will be war, and as long as there is war, there will be a need for people to fight it."

"And you're down here because you're doing something you would rather your father not find out about." Wolf didn't need to ask, he knew this must be true.

"I'm trying to undermine my father's regime. He may be a tyrant, but that doesn't make him stupid, so I must move slowly. It'll take many years to build up enough support, but I'm doing what I can."

"By throwing young children into boxes?"

"I was smuggling them out of their compound. It was the only way I could think of. I brought them all here in the hopes of rehabilitating them. Some have responded, too."

"How many are we talking here?" All the while they had been talking they had been moving closer to the door. At Wolf's question, she pushed the door open.

"Holy shit." Row upon row of cots was set up in an immense room. It was buzzing with _hundreds_ of children and youths between the ages of 8 and 16. Many of the younger ones were running around, screaming and playing. The older ones simply watched. More still lay motionless, staring into space, their eyes empty.

"Okay, okay, how about you, ouch! Don't do that again! Hey, come back here!" A mature female voice rang out over the din, full of laughter like the children. Wolf could see a young female fox carrying a child under each arm. Others were jumping around her. Her hair was cut very short, with a single thing braid falling down to below her chin. She was wearing a pair of tan cargo pants and bullet proof vest with nothing underneath it. Her hands were covered with black gloves.

Wolf turned as he heard Sloan's breath catch in her throat at the sight, not of the children, but the strange woman.

"Oh god… it… it can't be," she murmured, tears in her eyes. Then, with no explanation at all, she tore off in the direction of the woman.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sloan

Author's Note: Please forgive how atrociously late this chapter is. Emergency surgery has a tendency to throw a wrench into ones plans >.

"Sloan!" Wolf called after his young team-mate as she raced away. The woman suddenly stopped moving when Wolf called Sloan's name. She swung around with a look of mingled suspicion and hope. When she saw the girl racing towards her, her mouth dropped open. She put down the kids and opened her arms, which Sloan practically jumped into.

"Sloan, what's gotten into you?" Wolf pushed his way over to the exchange.

"Nikki! It can't be! I… what are you doing here?" Sloan's eyes were bright and misty with happiness.

"King shipped me out here to fill a Red Gen order," Nikki answered bitterly, brushing Sloan's hair out of her face to get a better look at the young woman.

"But, they all said you got adopted." Nikki's face clouded over.

"No one gets adopted out of there," she said, the bitterness still in her voice. "Anyone who leaves before the age of 18 is dispatched out to a Red Gen training camp." Sloan's eyes grew wide as she considered the implications of this piece of information.

"Sloan, who is this?" Wolf asked.

"This is Nicola, she took care of me when I was little, my first guardian."

"She got dumped on me when I was six and a half," Nikki said proudly, a reminiscing look in her eye. "And I loved her up right until I was 16, taught her everything she needed to know to live in a place like that. That's when the orphanage sent me out here to the training facility out in the sea. It was three years before Lady Zindia rescued me and brought me here." Nikki waved her hand around the room. "And you would be?" she asked of Wolf.

"Oh, Nikki, this is Wolf. He's my boss," Sloan answered quickly. Wolf held out his hand.

"Your boss huh? So now you're all independent, with income an' everything? Very nice." She eyed Wolf suspiciously, but took the offered hand. "So… what do you do?"

"I'm a mercenary," Wolf answered. Nikki's grip on Wolf's hand tightened until he was sure he couldn't get it away from her without a fight. Her grip was unnaturally strong. Wolf tensed, not sure what to expect.

"A merc, huh? From everything I know of mercs, they aren't the type to take care of little ones in a tight spot. More like take advantage of a kid and slave them out for profit."

"No, Nikki, please, it's not like that at all. Wolf's been good to me," Sloan said, pulling on Nicola's free arm, trying to break her angry mother hen stare that continued to bore into Wolf. Finally, Nikki decided that Wolf had not mistreated her 'little sister', and released Wolf's hand.

"So, why are you here?" Nikki asked, still glaring predatorily at Wolf. Wolf met her gaze defiantly.

"Xannon asked Wolf to transport some crates," Sloan answered, eyes glancing nervously between the two. "It was just a drop-and-go thing, so I don't think we'll be here much longer."

"Don't be so sure about that. I have a feeling that this is one of those 'now that you're here' situations," Wolf muttered

"What do you mean?" Sloan asked.

"You'll see." He glanced around, looking for his old friend. Xannon was sitting on a bed a few rows away with Fennec, watching him gently handling the cot's pillow like it was some precious jewel. "I'll let you two catch up," Wolf said, but Nikki had already swept Sloan off to talk about the four years of Sloan's life she had missed. Wolf walked over to Xannon slowly, looking around as he went. He was both amazed and sickened at the number of young ones running around. They seemed yet unscathed by the brutality of Red Gen. The older they got, however, the more cold and empty they seemed. More time in the system had sapped them of there 'humanity', their will to live and left…what?

Wolf stood silently and waited with arms crossed as Xannon got Fennec comfortable, no easy task with the constant commotion around. It was such a great contrast to the quiet, pensive atmosphere of the _Nicell_. Eventually, Fennec just lay on his bed on his side and watched the other children, not sure about what they were doing. Xannon patted his head and reassured him one more time before pulling the blanket up to cover his shoulders and leaving him to himself.

"He's very afraid, everything is so strange to him, but he is young, he will adjust," Xannon said with a tone that indicated she had done this many times before. She turned back and squinted through the crowd. "It seems your Sloan girl has a new friend."

"Old friend, it seems," Wolf muttered. Xannon's face suddenly filled with recognition.

"Oh! _That _Sloan!" she exclaimed. "I wondered why the name rings a bell. She's the only thing Nikki talks about from The Time Before."

"The Time Before?"

"It's what they call their lives before Red Gen got through with them. It's only ever a smattering, as Red Generation does a lot of testing on there subjects, and never leaves memories intact to make sure they never try to return to there old life. If they have a life to return to." Xannon turned sadly to look at the catwalk above. Wolf followed her gaze. There, in the dusty shadows, partially obscured by a support beam, a young man was watching them. He stood completely still, so still that if Xannon hadn't silently pointed him out, Wolf would never have realized the boy was even there.

His long sleeves had been rolled up to above his elbows, revealing scarred skin on his forearms. His fur looked like it had once been a sweet golden yellow, but the colour was now burnt out, faded. He was tall, accentuated by the fact that he was very thin. The most striking of his features what his eyes.

They reflected absolutely nothing at all.

The irises were slate grey, and his pupils were a little lighter than black. It gave the impression of emptiness, and his expression didn't do much to discourage such assumptions. His face was vacant, staring at Wolf and Xannon with nothing but a half bored interest. The icy, lifeless demeanour of the boy put Wolf on edge.

"Who…?" Wolf asked of Xannon.

"That would be Tomas. Although everyone calls him by the nickname he earned in training, Screwloose." Wolf couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Screwloose?"

"You'd have to know him," Xannon said, not unkindly. She smiled gently and waved at Tomas. That seemed to animate him. He glanced between the two, then disappeared into the dark. Xannon sighed. "Poor thing. He was conceived by Red Generation, brought to term in an artificial womb. His whole life he's been under their heel. He's got no memories to destroy. All the things that have been done to him, its no surprise he doesn't mix with people well."

"Reminds me of someone else," Wolf muttered, thinking of Sloan when they had first met. Six months seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Nikki has told me a lot about this orphanage in Sector Y," Xannon informed him. "It sounds like a perfect recruiting ground for Red Gen. Have you seen it?"

"Not personally, no. I try and stay out of Sector Y, to tell you the truth," Wolf admitted. The thought of being in that sector, where so many innocent people had met there deaths trying to flee from Andross' regime, it made his skin crawl.

"Then how did you two meet?"

"She came to me. I've got a station on the other side of the system. She was looking for a place to lay low." That wasn't completely true, but Wolf decided Xannon could take from it what she liked.

"I see. Then suppose I could talk to her about the orphanage, what it looks like, its defences?" Xannon said hopefully.

"It sounds like your planning a raid."

"All in good time. Like I said, these things will take years, but if we could undermine even one Red Generation hunting ground now…"

"The Lylatian government would be all over you. They've never heard of Red Generation, until a few months ago _I_ hadn't even heard of them. The government will think your attacking an orphanage. Besides, where's your army?" Xannon rubbed her temples in fatigue.

"They want to fight for the freedom of their comrades," she said quietly, glancing back at the bustling room. Wolf's resulting laugh was bitter.

"That's your plan, spring them from a training facility and then tell them to fight?"

"You say it like that's what I want! To steal them from my father just to use them for my own gains! What kind of a hypocrite do you think I am!?" Xannon snapped as viciously as she could while keeping her voice low enough for others around them not to notice.

"That's not what I meant," Wolf replied, his apology carried in the softness of his voice. Xannon turned away in frustration, hands on her hips, head down in anger. She had to gather herself for a few seconds before being able to continue.

"After my mother passed and my father came to power, some of our highest ranking military officers have come to share my views on father's rule. They have told me that when the time is right, they will stand with me and fight in my name, but not before the time is right." She turned back and stared into Wolf's eyes. Wolf struggled to keep his own purple irises fixed on the Zindia's blue ones. Hers burned with the ice-fire of emotion. "That's why I need your help. You're the only one I trust. Everyone else is too afraid to stand in defiance of him, but if my memory serves me as well as yours does you, the last thing you were afraid of was my father." Wolf sighed, shaking his head as he turned away from her.

"That was all so long ago. I can't, Zindi, things have changed, I…" he felt her half gauntleted hand on his arm.

"Wolf, look around at all these children, and think of the hundreds of thousands more that are suffering now." Try as hard as he might not to obey, he did. The whole thing made his heart ache, no matter how hard he tried to push it away.

"It'll be just like old times," Xannon tempted. Wolf winced. Nothing would ever be just like old times again. He wished he had never come back to this system.

"Old times? What about Vent then?" At that Xannon's hand dropped from his elbow.

"Vent, he never did get over you leaving without a word."

"It wasn't exactly my choice," Wolf growled anger, but his heart was crying as he remembered that night. All these memories, all these places and friends he had tried to forget. The life he had left in tatters.

How harmful an old friend's request can be.

"I know, Wolf, I know." Xannon's voice was so soothing. What Wolf had loved about it so long ago he hated in it now. "But maybe the time has come to repay the debt you left?" She tried to reach for his hand, but he pulled away.

"What are you planning?" he asked, not meeting her gaze.

"A warehouse not far from here. It's not big but the guard is on the stiff side. From the Intel I've gathered, they're storing a multitude of chemicals there that they are testing on their recruits. I want those chemicals destroyed. It shouldn't take much more than your team plus me and Nicola."

"We'll see," he growled, picking Leon and Panther out of the crowd, still standing stupidly where they had been left, taking it all in. He headed for them now, trying, for the moment, to escape the horrible web of memories he now found himself trapped in. Trapped, with the hungry spider of guilt bearing down on him, fangs in the form of an inescapable mission.

XXX

Sloan's hear flitted in her chest. It had been four years since she had felt Nikki's arm draped familiarly across her shoulders, but now that it lay in its proper place it felt as if it had never left at all. Nikki had listened eagerly to every bit of news on Sloan's life from which Nikki had been sadly absent.

"So, this Wolf character, he's actually a good man? You weren't just saying that because he was staring you down?" she asked, coming back to Sloan's employer as she led Sloan to a metal ladder that took them up to the second level catwalk and motioned for her to climb. Sloan hesitated for a moment, looking over its rusty rungs and bolts. Several rungs were missing, looking like they'd been sawed off.

"Uh, yeah, he's great." She grabbed a hold of the first rungs and pulled herself on. "Leon I could do without."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, but Wolf has treated me better than I ever could have hoped for. And for the record," Sloan twisted around on the ladder to face her, "the person he was glaring at was you."

"Me?" she said, mock-innocently, as Sloan started up again and they continued their ascent, "Why would he be glaring at me?"

"You looked like you were going to rip off his hand!" Sloan barked.

"Oh, please, don't be so dramatic," Nikki laughed.

"I'm not being dramatic!" Sloan insisted. "I was worried you were going to go right for the throat. What was that all about anyways?" Nikki sighed.

"I suppose you've just never met the mercs I have." Sloan decided she would concede that one. She reached up and, instead of grabbing another rung, grasped only air. The last few rungs were gone. Sloan looked up and, seeing they weren't too far away, reached up and seized in either hand one of the posts in the steel hand railing that clung to the edge of the catwalk. Using only her arms she pulled herself onto its scuffed, worn surface.

"How impressive. Guess you're not a pipsqueak anymore," Nikki commented. Sloan flashed her a smile before finding her feet.

The catwalk had once been sprayed with a thin layer of black traction foam, but years of motion had stripped the catwalk silver down the middle, leaving the black only on the farthest edges. The near constant weight had also bowed it slightly in the middle. Nikki pulled herself up the same way Sloan had. Besides the ladder, the only other exit off the catwalk was a doorway covered by an old grey blanket.

Sloan, now at quite a height above the floor, looked back out over the room. The lights mounted over every fifth bed made the whole room glow with a soft golden light. The whole setup reminded her a little of the sleeping area in Sector Y, only kinder, sweeter. Maybe it was the light, but it seemed to her that the room, massive as it was, was too small to take up the entire warehouse.

"Hey, look, there's Screwloose, hey Screwy!" Nikki called over Sloan's head, waving at a pale boy scurrying in their general direction. He looked up, Saw Nikki, and turned to head… where? It was either towards them, or back to where he had come. In defeat he waited for Sloan and Nikki to converge on his position.

"Screwy, this is Sloan, my little sister."

"Pleased to meet you," Sloan said and held out her hand to shake. Screwloose took one look at her gesture and jerked back, shrinking away from her hand, rolling his shoulders uncomfortably and averting his eyes from her. Sloan wasn't sure how to react. It seemed to her she had offended Screwloose. Nikki reached forward and pushed Sloan's hand back down to her side.

"Stop being such a wuss, Screwy." Her voice was hard and quiet, there was no questioning an order that came on such a voice. Screwloose recovered himself, but refused to look at Sloan, instead staring past her like she wasn't event there.

"What did I do?" Sloan whispered in Nikki's ear.

"Oh, nothing," Nikki replied, choosing to ignore Screwloose's behaviour. "Screwy and I were trained together, at the same facility. Fate saw fit to keep us together and, when the time came, free us together." She looked at Sloan sadly. "I'm used to this already."

"Can I go now, Nicola?" Screwloose asked, shifting from foot to foot impatiently. Nikki rolled her eyes, but nodded. Screwloose bustled past them, through the doorway hidden under the blanket. As he pulled back the covering, he glanced pointedly back at Nikki to follow. Not a single point of light escaped from the absolute blackness beyond the curtain. Nikki shook her head, and he disappeared.

"Where's he going?" Sloan asked.

"Somewhere Else,' Nikki said cryptically.

"Well I can see he's going somewhere else, but _what_ is the somewhere else?" Nikki smiled at Sloan's question.

"That's what it's called, Somewhere Else. We weren't allowed to give it a name. If we had they would have found out," Nikki said, her voice returning to the way it had been when she had told Screwloose to get a grip. Sloan hesitated for a moment.

"Who is 'they'?" she asked, voice edged with fear.

"Them!" Nikki exclaimed. "The ones who train, the ones who buy and sell like we're objects!" Her eyes were alight with anger. "Machines of war are not meant to have culture, traditions! Somewhere Else is a death sentence for everyone involved if ever found." Sloan backed away as Nicola tried to come closer.

"Sloan!" Wolf's voice rang out from above the din. "Where are you?! We're heading back!" Sloan jerked in the direction of his voice. She could see him over the railing, standing with Panther and Leon. She gave Nikki an apologetic look, one Nikki didn't seem to notice. Her anger had transformed into something different. Something primeval. Sloan beat a hasty retreat to the ladder, hating herself for wanting nothing more than to escape the presence of her once dearest friend.


	8. Chapter 8

The walk back had been in the dark of night

The walk back was in the dark of night. At least, as dark as the night could be with three moons, one of which in its full phase. Still, Sloan stayed close by Wolf's side. The shadows themselves seemed to be crawling. Mutterings from the dark floated to her ear, in tongues she had never heard, accompanied by the glow of sinister eyes. Eyes that all seemed to be watching her, some with obvious looks of disgust. She turned up the collar on her jacket and shoved her hands in her pockets, turning her attention to the gravel crunching beneath her feet in the hopes of blocking out the voices. Even in the moonlight she could she the rust red colour. She wondered if the rock was always that colour, or if it had been dyed by shavings that had fallen from the buildings around her.

She heard the crunch and rocky slide of gravel being disturbed, followed by a girl's loud curse in an unknown language. Sloan turned around and saw a young, darkly coloured songbird on her hands and knees, dust from the displaced stones still floating in a thin cloud around her. A teenaged canine, his exact species hard to see in the dark, was standing over the bird, a fistful of her clothing in his hand, trying to pull her to her feet. From the tone of his voice he seemed to be urging her up. The girl turned her head to look at Star Wolf and, upon meeting Sloan's gaze, stopped dead in her tracks.

The three stood stayed completely still. The two locals seemed fearful that they had been spotted by the outsiders. Sloan took a few steps forward towards them. The boy yelped a few words and wrenched the girl to her feet. They both took off as fast as they could. The girl turned back in apparent wonder at Sloan, still running behind the boy. The boy noticed where her eyes had wandered to, and jerked her savagely forward. She was forced to turn her eyes front in order to avoid falling on her face.

"What…?" Sloan murmured.

"They're not afraid of you," Wolf said. Sloan didn't understand how he could have missed their obvious signs. The mutterings seemed to be quieter, but the eyes watched all the more intently.

"How'd you figure?" she asked, trying to focus on him instead of allowing her mind to meld the people in the shadows into monsters. Wolf tapped his eye patch.

"People around here abhor cybernetic enhancement thanks to a group of cyber-freaks known as the Clause Dominion. They give the whole scientific field a bad name." It had never occurred to Sloan that the scathing looks had been meant for the person next to her.

"You sure know a lot about Boolie," Panther commented, falling into step beside Sloan. Leon came up on Wolf's side.

"Yeah well, I may have not been here in ten years, but my last visit wasn't exactly an overnight trip. I see the dome," Wolf said to deflect the conversation away from himself. The others followed his line of vision, and they too saw the round silver walls of the hanger, a single blemish of beauty in an unending landscape of ugliness.

"Finally," Panther sighed.

"Don't start," Leon snapped irritably, just to make a fight. Sloan glanced in Wolf's direction, expecting him to tell them both to quit acting like children. He said absolutely nothing to stop the bickering. Sloan noticed that bothered look on his face, but she was too shaken up by her encounter with Nikki to ask and get any of Wolf's sharp retorts.

Even though it was dark outside, there was no ebb in the bustle of the space port. A large crew was on the floor, guiding a black hulled space barge into a port next to The _Nicell_. They were having a hard time of it, and Sloan could hear them shouting curses at the android pilot. The barge they had been loading earlier that morning had since departed, and a shining war cruiser painted in the Zindian colours had taken its place. Some of the soldiers were loitering around in their birth, snapping angry words at passing workers and glancing around with a general look of contempt.

"And just what are people as self-important as you doing on a filthy planet like this?" Wolf wondered aloud. One of the older looking officers was glancing around, arms crossed over his chest as if everything he was seeing wasn't worth his time. His eyes floated over his grubby surroundings. His eyes seemed to pass over the group, but the man did a double-take and his eyes snapped back. The look on his face was one of utter bewilderment. He turned and said something to a younger man next to him. The man shrugged. The older man looked back at them. He started across the floor towards them, pushing a young feline roughly out of his way. Wolf grabbed Sloan's arm and turned quickly around.

"Time to go."

XXX

The soldier's advance had scared the daylights out of Sloan, but Wolf had assured her that they were Imperial soldiers, and not connected to Red Generation. Sloan still wasn't so sure. She had stayed in her room all that night, playing Go with Nicell. Neither had any idea how to play, but were having a blast trying to figure it out from instructions looked up online. It had taken her hours to get tired of it, but the moment had finally come.

"I have to stretch my legs," Sloan informed Nicell. The holo-board disappeared.

"Let's play again tomorrow," Nicell said enthusiastically, her poorly detailed head following Sloan out the door.

"Sure, if you want." Sloan looked up and down the brightly lit corridor. It was awfully quiet. "Everyone must be asleep."

"Maybe you should be to. Rest is important," Nicell said.

"Whatever," Sloan answered dismissively with a wave of her hand. "I never got to see engineering, let's go there."

"Ladder on the right." Sloan treaded carefully down the hall, careful not to wake anyone up. "Do you require less sleep than the others?" Nicell asked.

"Huh?" Sloan replied stupidly.

"As a human, do you require less sleep than the species' native to the Lylat system?" Nicell rephrased, using the 'big words' native to android speech.

"No, well, yes, I guess. I don't like to sleep."

"I don't understand. Organics must sleep, or else they suffer a chemical imbalance in the brain. You are organic, are you not?"

"You ask too many questions sometimes."

"I only wish to understand you better. Maybe I could ask about something else… your family, perhaps?" Sloan's fingers slipped on the ladder rungs.

"Or perhaps not," she insisted as her feet touched the floor. Nicell did not reply, sensing, finally, that she had touched a nerve. Her face quietly disappeared from view. Sloan noticed her absence and felt bad for getting short with her. Nicell was young; and barely new Sloan anyways. How could she know about her past?

The ladder had deposited her in an alcove off from the main room. Sloan was about to step out when a voice caught her attention.

"No, I'm afraid it's going to take a little longer than I thought. No… no. I know… I know what I said…" Wolf's voice trailed off. Sloan, surprised, crept out a little from the alcove to get a better look. He was talking to someone via a cell phone hooked into the ship's communications network. He was listening intently to the person on the other end. "Now you know I'd never," he said. He sounded like he was trying to soothe the person on the other end. "Of course I will. Have I ever missed something so important? That's what I thought. Listen, I've got to go. I don't know, maybe… well, yeah, I was hoping so. You too." He flipped down the top of his cell phone, his odd little smile played around his lips. His real smile, Sloan knew. He leaned back in his chair, sighing and rubbing his eye with one hand.

"Go to bed, Wolf," he muttered to himself. He got up with a fair degree of difficulty and trudged to the lift. Sloan could tell he was exhausted. Simply watching him made her feel tired.

"I think I should go to bed now," She whispered.

"I agree," Nicell answered, her voice lowered in imitation of Sloan. Sloan crept quietly back up the ladder, careful to make no noise. She was almost back up to her floor when she stopped dead. She could hear Wolf's footfalls above her. She listened, trying to place his location. She listened as he crossed from the lift, stopping a few feet later.

"Sloan…" he sounded as if he wanted to say something, but instead his footsteps picked back up. It wasn't until Wolf's own door slid open and shut that Sloan realized he had stopped outside her door. He thought she was in her room, asleep. She scampered from the ladder across to her room, trying not to wonder who Wolf was talking to or what he wanted to say to her.

XXX

Thanks to Sloan's oddly programmed internal clock, she was up bright and early the next day, bobbing around the halls with Nicell at her shoulder. She did not re-enter engineering, feeling as if it was now silently forbidden. She was contemplating asking Wolf if she could return to Xannon's warehouse and see Nikki again, but Panther found her first.

"Meeting on the bridge," was all he said.

"What about?" Sloan asked.

"Not a clue, but if I were to assume, I would say that we wouldn't need a meeting to tell us we were going home." Sloan wasn't sure whether to be exited, or to go back to her room with instructions to be woken up when it was all over. Panther held the lift door open for her, "Coming?" he asked jokingly. Sloan grinned convincingly.

_Now's not the time for cowardice_, she thought. "Of course."

Sloan wasn't surprised to see Xannon on the bridge along with Wolf. Her arms were crossed over her chest and Sloan could see she was all business. Nikki was also there, perched on a chair. Her static face grew a smile when Sloan walked in. The smile took Sloan off her edge. It seemed as if Nicola did not even remember her little fit from the day before. She motioned her over, and Sloan found herself following the calling motion of her hand.

"What are you doing here?" Sloan asked. Nikki's ears twitched.

"Wolf has decided to help us carry out a raid against Red Generation," she replied. Sloan had expected such an answer, but something about it made her shiver. She looked over at Wolf, who was watching her without actually seeing. He looked as if he was thinking deeply.

"So, what are we doing?" Sloan asked the room at large. Wolf's eye floated over to Xannon, and he gave her the nod. Xannon, who had been leaning on a control panel, uncurled and rose to her feet.

"Computer," she called briskly, facing the view screen.

"Nicell," Sloan corrected.

"Sorry?" Xannon asked.

"Nicell. The computer's name is Nicell," Sloan explained, pointing at Nicell's hologram that had appeared on the holo-podium. Xannon followed her finger across the room. She looked Nicell up and down. The look one her face told Sloan she was trying to hide her true emotions about the hologram. Sloan could see the poorly hidden distaste.

"I see. The photos please, Nicell."

"Uh, right, photos…" Nicell tried to handle things with her usual shaky, shy demeanour. Sloan couldn't understand why Sabre had created her to be so… weak? No, that was the wrong word for it. She had learned in the last six months and understood that now.

The view screen flashed, grabbing Sloan's attention away from Nicell. On it was an aerial photograph of one of Berman's many zones. They were different by name, but in appearance they were uniform. All Sloan could see was three rows of poorly looked after warehouses, six in each row, separated by dirt roads. The only difference was that she could not spot any darker figures on the road that heralded workers or illegal inhabitants.

"Okay?" Sloan prompted.

"This is Zone 76. It's a restricted area; has been since Red Generation moved in." She nodded at Nicell, who switched the picture to the next image in the slide. It was of the same thing, except that this time, the fourth building in the second row was circled in blue. "This is the one that I want to hit. I've received reports from a very reliable source that they are using this warehouse as a vault." Xannon turned to regard the room. "A vault full of chemicals. Chemicals that are due to be shipped out to their multiple training facilities throughout Boolie and tested on the children they are keeping prisoner."

"What are we talking about here?" Panther asked. "What kind of chemicals? How much are we getting rid of?" Xannon shook her head.

"My informant would know more than me, but I know they'll be at least a half dozen different combat drugs, along with a multitude of otherwise legitimate drugs."

"Sorry?" Wolf asked, confused. "What do you mean 'otherwise legitimate'?" Xannon sighed, her right hand rising to rest on her opposite elbow, "Red Generation is subsidised by multiple pharmaceutical companies. In exchange for the subsidies, they test the company's drugs on their prisoners."

"Jesus Christ," Panther murmured.

"You obviously understand why we need to stop them. If we hit this vault, we can save many children from a lot of pain, or at least stave off their fate."

"When?" Sloan asked.

"Tonight," Nikki answered, her first time speaking since Xannon had started her briefing. "We have to go after dark or they'll catch us. We've got the charges to blow the whole damn place sky high."

"Um, isn't that a little dangerous?" Every eye in the room snapped to Nicell, who shrank back on her podium, looking as if she had regretted speaking.

"What?" Nikki asked curtly.

"Ah, what I mean is, if you blow it up, some of the chemicals are going to end up burning. Won't they get released into the atmosphere?" Nicell's words came out in a rush. Xannon shook her head.

"Berman's atmosphere is already badly contaminated, but there are multiple cleaning facilities throughout the planet." Zindi's lips twitched. "My mother had them put in place for the people living here. It's not much, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"And the informant? You're sure he's trustworthy," Wolf asserted, making sure of Zindi's faith.

"I trust Ave with my life," she replied. Wolf nodded, that was good enough for him.

"Alright, eight hours until showtime."

XXX

"Sloan what are you doing!? Put that damn thing down," Wolf growled when he saw the young humanness trying on a shotgun. The team was down in the armoury, getting ready for the imminent mission. For hours they had been running over specifics; the exact location of the warehouse, called The Vault for mission purposes, entrances and exits, weak points for the charges to be placed on, and, most importantly in Sloan's opinion, their hasty get-away. The plans were on display on a holo-screen in the center of the room.

The armoury itself was simple. The screen was in the middle, surrounded by a white handrail with a control panel on either side. Around it the room was a shining circle. White floors, silver wall plating until about knee height, then it turned back to white and grey. Three quarters of the walls slid away to reveal a large assortment of weapons. Wolf marched over and wrenched the shotgun from Sloan's hands.

"Give me that. The kick from this weapon would blow you off your feet." He placed the gun carefully back on its rack. "You're a little kid, you need weapons with a lot less kickback," he explained, running his gaze over the arsenal.

"I'm not a kid," Sloan said under her breath, embarrassed by Wolf's reprimand.

"You're 14 and a half," Wolf retorted. "Now, that blaster that you were using just didn't fit. Something smaller, definitely…" his voice trailed off. Sloan could tell by his tone he was no longer talking to her. He walked away from the high powered, two handed weapons. He picked up a pistol. Its dark body fit easily into his hand "Projectile," he stated, holding it up for her to see. "It's got the disadvantage of having to carry around replacement clips, but it doesn't give of a power signature like a plasma pistol does." He picked up another pistol. This one was much lighter colour, and slightly bulkier.

"Is that one a plasma pistol?" Sloan asked. Wolf smiled.

"Yes, that's right. Plasma pistols have almost no kick, so they're more accurate, but they can give you away if someone is looking for the signature." He held out the butt end of both the pistols. Sloan raised her hand to take one, but she faltered. Which one should she take? Her hand hesitated for a moment, before closing over the dark, sleek body of the projectile pistol. She grabbed its empty holster and strapped it to her leg. She released the gun in front of the holster and the magnetic catch grabbed it and held. She took two extra clips and slipped them in beside the pistol.

"Am I ready?" Sloan asked.

"No, you need a back-up," Wolf decided.

"Wait, so, should I take the plasma pistol too?"

"No, no, that's not it. You need something that you can pull out and use if they have the upper hand. Like this." He leaned down and pulled out his hunting knife from a sheath near his knee. Its handle was a pitch black, high quality wood. The long, reflective blade was in perfect condition. Several words were etched elegantly into the silvery surface, but Wolf slipped the knife back away before she could read them.

"Go over there and find something. Well, maybe a couple of things, but they've got to be small," Wolf said, nodding towards the wall of hand-held blades. Sloan skipped over, her fingers dancing inches above the menacing-looking instruments. Light glinted off a small knife off to the right. The serrated blade was only three inches long, but it looked easy to hide. Sloan took it carefully, showing it to Wolf, who was leaning against the handrail. He shrugged.

"Serrated is good." Deciding that counted as his approval, Sloan turned and looked for something a bit longer. Seeing nothing else she really liked, she simply picked up a nearby hunting knife. The hilt fit well into her palm. She hid the smaller one in a small pocket on the upper left arm of her jacket. She strapped the sheath of the hunting blade to her thigh just below her pistol. Turning back to Wolf, she threw her hands in the air. He nodded approvingly.

"Now you're looking like a mercenary," Panther remarked. Leon stayed strangely quiet, looking over an assortment of vicious looking instruments.

"Let's go," Wolf announced to the room. "You won't be needing those," he directed at Leon. Leon reached out and picked up several long, thin, gently curving blades that looked like scimitars.

"It's always good to be prepared. What do we know of this Ave person?" Leon asked.

"If Zindi trusts him, that's good enough for me."

"Good enough for you, maybe." The blades disappeared into Leon's clothes. "I'm ready now." He decided.

"Okay then, everybody out." Wolf led the way to the lift. Sloan followed at his elbow, hands crammed in her pockets. She ran the mission plan over and over again in her head. They were to meet Xannon and Nikki at the entrance to the hanger, as not to take a chance on uncovering the location of Xannon's warehouse. They would be travelling incognito to the Vault via the workers transit system under guises that Xannon had cooked up for them. Everyone was wearing civilian clothing, including Leon. The normalcy of his clothes made him look incredibly strange. To go along with the ruse, Wolf had instructed the med droid to remove his cybernetic eyepatch. Sloan was still adjusting to the look of smooth skin where eye should have been. Sabre, as usual, was waiting for them at the airlock.

"Are you sure I can't come? I'd love to help you blow things up." she said with a playful smile on her face. Wolf looked a lot more serious.

"If anything happens, I need you here," he told her. Sabre let out a long, drawn out sigh, still smiling.

"Oh alright. Nicell and I will be ready and waiting, you won't have to worry about a thing." This time she meant what she said. Nicell's low-pixel count face appeared.

"Good luck."

"Yeah, yeah," Wolf muttered, through the airlock without even a look in Nicell's direction. Indeed, Sloan was the only one to thank her.

"Okay, Zindi should be just outside. The transfer station should be near here," Wolf informed the group when they were safely outside the ship.

"How come there's transit if no one is supposed to be living here?" Sloan asked

"You still have to reach the warehouses," Wolf answered. Nicola was waiting feet from the dome's entrance, just as Wolf had predicted. She was leaning against the port's side, wearing a half bored expression. The setting sun cast her into shadows so deep they would not have even noticed her if she hadn't reached out and grabbed Sloan. She jerked her head to the right, down the dirt road in the opposite direction from where they had gone last time. By the time they reached Xannon, the wolf had worn a dirt circle in the ground from pacing.

"Look a little nervous, Zindi."

Xannon looked completely different from what she had that morning. Every fur on her body had been dyed dirty brown, lightening to blond. Her long hair was pulled back and tied by a braid of the very same. Even her eyes were different, somehow they had become red. Her body armour had been replaced with something much less grand. A simple pair of jeans and a light jacket that had the elbow torn out of it. The white-ish shirt under her jacket was stained. She fit in quite well with what everyone else was wearing.

"Just going over the details," she muttered. She stopped pacing. "Okay, this is how it's going to fly. We're taking the employee transit. Everyone riding those lines is treated like animals, so expect to be pushed around by soldiers. But whatever you do, don't fight back," her eyes flashed in Leon's direction. "The last thing we need tonight is a fight."

"What's the scenario?" Wolf asked.

"Right, scenario. Well, for tonight, my name is Brenna. This is my lovely husband Kai," she motioned to Wolf. He nodded, smiling a little at his part. "And our daughter Raven. Adopted of course," she added with a wink in Sloan's direction. Sloan didn't move, not expecting this role. "Nikki is living with us since we need the money. You two are just people getting on and off at the same stop." Leon and Panther both nodded to show that they'd heard. "My family and I have just moved to this Zone, it's our first night on the job. Got it?" There was a rumble of confirmation. "Alright then. Ave is meeting us at the site. The station is this way, let's go, we don't want to be late. Oh, and Raven dear, stay close to your father." It sounded so fake to Sloan's ears, she couldn't help but wonder how in the world it would work. She jumped a foot when Wolf took her hand.

"Come on." And the game had started.


	9. Chapter 9

Everything on Berman seemed to be loud and dirty, at least wherever many people gathered

Everything on Berman seemed to be loud and dirty, at least wherever many people gathered. Sloan was clinging to Wolf's arm, hating the crush all around her. They were on the dilapidated, overcrowded platform, waiting for the shuttle to arrive. Panther and Leon lost themselves in the crowd, Xannon had gone off, and Nikki stood silently behind Sloan. Wolf had casually struck up a conversation with a male swine standing next to him. Sloan was busy watching the crowd for Xannon.

"So how long have you folks been here? Haven't seen you around," the swine said pleasantly. He was a heavy-set man, but that was a mark of his species. He had dark, beady eyes that were set deep in his face under a heavy brow. He had a shock of red hair between his eyes that matched his soiled clothes. Wolf shrugged.

"Oh, we just got here no to long ago. Brenna is off trying to find out which shuttle we're on."

"Well I've lived here since conception, so I'm sure I can point you in the right direction. Where 'ya headed?"

"Ah, I'm… not quite sure," Wolf said, and they shared a good natured laugh. Sloan had to commend him, Wolf was playing like a pro. Xannon pushed back to them.

"Alright, I know where we're going. We need shuttle three. Hurry, we don't want to miss it, this way." Xannon hurried her three companions from one platform to another.

"W…Kai," Sloan caught herself.

"Yes?"

"That guy you were talking to, I think he's following us." Wolf casually glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, the pig was following about six feet behind. Wolf shrugged.

"He's probably going to the same place we are."

"I doubt that," Sloan muttered. Wolf smiled.

"I mean the same shuttle. Don't be so paranoid about the locals, it's the soldiers you have to be worried about."

"Hurry up! Move it!" Sloan looked up and saw a white haired fox in imperial uniform shoving people into what looked like a cattle car. Wolf took Sloan's hand off his arm and held it in his hand. A bolt of warmth shot up her arm. No one had ever held her hand before in her life.

Sloan glanced back at the soldier as they got on the shuttle. He was staring at her, and not with the usual contempt. Was he suspicious? She could feel cold sweat collecting between her shoulder blades despite the incredible heat in the place. She was sure any time now the man would stop them and they'd all be found out. She jumped when a hand landed heavily on her shoulder, but it was only Nikki.

Inside the shuttle was empty of any kind of furnishings. People sat shoulder to shoulder against both walls. The atmosphere of people being crammed in like sardines, along with the heat and smell of too many people in one room, reminded her of the sleeping area at the orphanage. They found a spot to sit against the right wall on a dirty blanket. Sloan, admitting to herself that she was taking advantage of the situation, snuggled under Wolf's arm. Wolf did not object.

The white fox, along with two heavy set wolves, also dressed in imperial armour, walked past through the car, towards the engine. Sloan watched them go.

"How long will we be on this thing?" she asked.

"No more than two hours or so," Xannon said with an encouraging smile. The quartet fell into silence, and continued that way for the better part of an hour. Sloan was more than content to sit and listen to Wolf's heart beat, but she could feel him start to fidget. It wasn't long before he had struck up a conversation with a blue fennec sitting across from him. She looked much better kept that those around her, so much so that she almost looked out of place. She had a black bandana tied in her hair that had the skull and crossbones on it, just like the one of Wolf's that Sloan still had around her neck.

The heat and gentle murmurs of other voices were making Sloan drowsy, and she floated in and out of Wolf's conversation. Something about the other side of the Thin Red Line, some kind of trade agreement. She heard the woman laugh bitterly.

"Please, you have no idea. That whole thing is a joke."

"What about Steisla?" Wolf countered. "What happened to that project? I thought they were relocating them there."

"What rock have you been living under? The Steisla project got scrapped," the woman said, "every relocation order quietly got turned into execution orders. All the hope the Outlanders had died with the Empress, bless her soul." The look in the woman's eyes became distant. "Someone has to stop Revenent," she muttered.

"Don't say that too loud!" Xannon said sharply. "Just because you aren't an Outlander doesn't mean they won't kill you!" The woman laughed at her.

"Girly, where have you been?"

"Don't talk to my wife that way," Wolf said calmly.

"Sorry, it's just… how can you not know? I mean, with her and all, you'd think you'd have some knowledge of the guilds activities." Sloan realized that the woman was pointing at her. Sloan looked up at Wolf for some kind of an explanation. Wolf said nothing. The woman continued. "The guild is really the only power left in the system that can at least be a thorn in Emperor Zindia's side. More and more people are turning to pirates like us to protect them. Because really, who else will?" Sloan's head popped up. Guilds, pirates? What were they talking about? And what could it possibly have to do with her? The woman was staring at her, wearing a 'you-know-what-I-mean' look. Sloan smiled and nodded, not really sure what she was agreeing to.

"So, where did you come from, little one? I haven't heard of many human families in this system, especially any prolific enough to wear that mark," the fox said. Sloan's hand unconsciously reached up to the bandana. She was talking about the skull and crossbones.

"I'm not from around here," she murmured, her voice nearly inaudible. The woman laughed.

"I would assume so. Or do you mean way not from around here, as in an Outlander?" Sloan was about to answer, but Wolf squeezed her shoulders, a signal she took to mean stay quiet.

"No, she's not, but if she was we wouldn't tell you anyways," Wolf said matter-of-factly. The woman was not offended; in fact, she seemed to have gleaned some hidden meaning from his words. She leaned back against the wall and fell silent.

Her silence came just in time, because no sooner had she settled back again then the white fox returned to the compartment with his guards. Sloan noticed that on his shoulder guard was a red symbol that looked like a stylized, two headed dragon. He looked at everyone in the compartment like they were lower than dirt. Sloan could feel herself shrinking into Wolf's side.

"Which one of you maggots were talking about the Emperor just now?" he hissed. Sloan would have jumped had she not been so tight against Wolf. Had he been listening? But then, if he had, wouldn't he know the offenders?

"Not sure what you mean," answered the swine that Wolf had been talking to earlier. His simple statement was answered by a buzz of people talking.

"Shut up!" the soldier yelled. Sloan winced, he sounded like a warden. The man saw her movements. His bare, clawed hand snapped down before she could react. The next thing she knew, she had been jerked out of Wolf's arms and was dangling a few inches above the floor, the fox's hand around her throat.

"What's wrong, girlie, don't like it when I yell?" he hissed. "Maybe you won't mind it so much when I squeeze the life out of you." Sloan struggled against his grasp, but he just tightened his fingers.

"I…I," Sloan couldn't breath, had no way to explain herself. She had been fighting with her eyes closed to keep them averted from his. When she opened them, they caught his horrible look of sadistic glee. He was enjoying Sloan's pain. She heard a shuffling off to her left as Wolf stood. The first guard stepped in his way.

"Sit down, you filth."

"Not until that bastard puts my daughter down!"

"What did you call me, you scum?"

"I called you a bastard! Now put her down!" Though Sloan's head was swimming, the emotion in Wolf's voice came across loud and clear. He sounded ready to take all three of them with his bare hands to protect her. You couldn't act that.

"Kai, be careful…" Xannon whispered. Nikki's muscles contracted, ready to spring into action. Sloan started to choke and sputter as the soldiers fingers tightened to the point she could feel them piercing into her throat.

"That's enough," it was the voice of the blue furred woman. "Put her down." Her voice was very calm and controlled, like someone who was used to dealing with situations that had gone out of control.

"What, you giving _me_ orders? Just who do you think you are?"

"I am Cresenda Lunest." The name seemed to change the fox's demeanour. Sloan took a rattling breath as the man loosened his grip, the tips of his fingers stained with her blood.

"I… Lunest? What are you doing here?"

"Put her down, or I'll put you down." The threat tightened his fingers again, but, with a sneer still on his face, he let Sloan slip from his grasp. She fell to the metal floor, coughing and gasping for breath. Wolf kneeled down and collected the bedraggled girl. There was a few seconds of incredible tension in the room. Cresenda stood before them alone, staring them bravely down. Sloan noticed two more blue furred foxes a little further down in the car lean forward. To anyone else it would have been a common gesture, not worth noticing, but Sloan could see the slight resemblance both males had to Cresenda, brothers, maybe, and she could see that they were intently waiting for a signal of some kind. The white fox glared at her, and the wolves looked ready to attack.

"You… I'll…" the man sputtered. Then, without another word, he turned on his heel and marched back to the engine. As soon as he was gone, a loud chorus of muttering and whispers broke.

"Amazing…"

"A pirate, here?"

"The Lunest family… I've heard so much…"

"That girl is so lucky…" Cresenda kneeled down next to Sloan, who was clinging to Wolf's chest, and checked to see if the gasping girl was alright.

"Now, now, let go before you bleed all over him," she said, the light hearted tone returning to her voice.

"Lunest… what are you doing here?" Wolf's voice had a respectable level of awe to it. Cresenda smiled.

"Let's just leave it with I'm looking for someone. I'm just glad I could help out a sister." She winked at Sloan. Sloan didn't bother to respond.

"How…did you… do that?" Sloan asked through gasps.

"The Lunest family has a huge amount of weight in this region, that guy knows that if he does anything to me he'll be dead before the empire can send anyone to save his ass. I'm amazed you haven't heard of us." She looked up as the shuttle began to slow. A box flashed an LED lit 75 above the door. Cresenda laughed lightly. "Good thing this is my stop, else he'd probably throw me off the train."

"Oh jeez, this is us too. Help me out here hun," Wolf said to Xannon, but Cresenda got there first, throwing her arm under Sloan's. Sloan pulled away.

"No… no, I'm fine. Trust me, I'm fine." Sloan cleared her throat, then stood up tall to show everyone just how fine she was. The cuts on her neck had stopped bleeding. Cresenda smiled and stepped back. Sloan led the group as they got off. They, along with Panther and Leon, who had recently reappeared, and the two Lunest brothers, were the only ones.

Sloan was infinitely glad to get out of the cattle car. The air wasn't any fresher, but the shuttle sped away shortly after their exit, taking with it the vicious imperial fox.

Zone 75 was one of the rare zones on Berman that were actually producing something as a foundry zone. As soon as you took you're first step in, you were overcome by the heat and smoke. The sky was a churning mass of sooty black clouds being spewed out from the smokestacks in the factories around. The heat that poured from the open furnaces around baked and blistered the skin of the workers that tended them. There were several grimy workers wandering around, a melange of species, all males, all naked from the waist up and knees down, all half starved, ribs and shoulder bones poking at their skin. There fur, skin, or feathers, whatever they happened to have, was ingrained with the same soot and grime that hung thick in the air. All of them had a defeated, empty look, like their spirits had been broken. Sloan knew that look well.

"Which way are you going now?" Wolf asked Cresenda.

"Like I said, this is my stop," Cresenda replied.

"I wish we had some time to help you look for who you've lost," Wolf said. Cresenda waved him off.

"Oh, no, don't worry. It's not actually very important, I just want to see if I can help out a friend. You guys aren't working here, are you? It's a hell of a place to be bringing a little one," she warned, nodding to Sloan.

"Oh, I'm a clerk in the main building. It's the only work I could find," Xannon said sheepishly. Cresenda nodded sagely.

"Well, have fun, and you take care of yourself," she said, her last comment directed at Sloan, then turned around and disappeared into the smoggy night right before their eyes, followed by the brothers, who said nothing hand wore a very hard expression.

"Okay, we need to go, now," Xannon said, turning and heading in the opposite direction from Cresenda. Star Wolf and Nicola followed Xannon away from the foundries and into the warehouses that held fuel for the furnace fires and stored the things made at the foundry. The air slowly began to get cooler and lighter, and the bedraggled workers began to be spotted less and less. Once Sloan was sure that they were alone, she grabbed Wolf's arm.

"What… just happened?" she asked.

"We got into a dust up, which is exactly what we didn't want."

"No, I mean, pirates and guilds… and then she thought I was a pirate 'cuz of _this_!" Sloan tugged on the bandana around her throat. "Last I remember, this is yours. Are you a pirate too? Is that why you know your way around this system so well?" Sloan's question stopped everybody in there tracks. The fatherly love and compassion that had been in Wolf's eyes in the train was gone. They were now harder and colder than she had ever seen them. It scared her so much that she took a step back. She had touched a nerve, one she hadn't seen coming.

"You…" he snarled. Sloan shivered, he sounded like he was going to hit her. "…have and active imagination," he finally hissed, reigning in his anger and turning away. Xannon looked conflicted about something. Sloan watched the group walk on, following Wolf's angry, determined gate. What had she said wrong? Was it the probing into his past? But it couldn't be, could it? He had never before got so angry. Nicola's hand on her shoulder shook her out of her shock, and she took a few frightened steps in Wolf's direction.

XXX

Wolf walked in silence, brooding. She just had to ask about _everything_, she could leave nothing alone.

_She is only a kid_, Wolf reminded himself. He sighed, and glanced back at Sloan. She was obviously very shaken by his rage. She walked slowly, staring at the ground, guided by Nikki's hand.

"I always wondered why you never came back," Xannon said. "You never even talked about it?"

"Please, Xannon…" she begged her silence, giving her a pleading look. She shook her head.

"No wonder you look so haunted. You never even talked about what happened, did you? God, Obie, you are a stubborn bastard."

"It's no one else's business," Wolf growled. "And don't call me Oban."

"Why? Are you ashamed? Of who you are?"

"Of who I used to be!" This stopped Xannon in her tracks.

"Used to be? Wolf I… you… I don't believe you." Wolf turned away, ashamed. They walked on in silence. "You can't have completely turned your back on Boolie, or else you wouldn't be here," she ventured in a softer tone. Wolf said nothing, trying to fight the tears that came with the memories.

"I could never…" his voice trailed off, then came back strong with a question. "How is Vent?" Xannon smiled.

"I really thought you'd never ask. He was devastated when you left without telling us."

"It wasn't exactly my fault."

"Oh, I know. And so did he, after the news got to him. But, you know, he always thought you were coming back. We put our Journey off two years because he didn't want to leave without you," Xannon recounted. Wolf's gut knotted with guilt. "After our journey," Xannon continued, "he left for the Outlands. I haven't really heard from him since." Wolof shook his head.

_I should never have returned, all I bring with me is painful memories._ Wolf thought. Xannon stopped.

"This is where he said to meet him," she told Wolf.

"Was he supposed to be waiting for us?" Wolf asked, trying to sound businesslike.

"Not on your life, but he'll come, trust me." They turned and waited for the rest of their group to catch up. Sloan did not meet his gaze when she caught up. Leon stood next to Wolf with a venomous smile on his face. His callousness made Wolf sick. Leon was just like the white fox on the train. Suddenly, a voice echoed from the darkness into their ears.

"Ah, I see you've got more company than I was expecting, your Imperial Highness."


	10. Chapter 10

Everyone tensed as a darkly coloured man stepped from the shadows, everyone except Nicola and Xannon. Nikki did nothing, but Xannon stepped forward and threw her arms around the man's next.

"Ave! It's so good to see you!"

"You sound like you didn't think I would come," Ave teased, returning the embrace. Ave looked to be some kind of canine, but either he was a species Sloan wasn't aware of, or he was a hybrid of some kind. He was blue, but unlike the light colour of Cresenda's coat, Ave's was a midnight blue so dark he blended in quite well with the shadows around him. He was thin, but not gaunt, and he had an evil little smile. He had on very plain, ordinary clothes, nothing fancier than a light coloured leather jacket over an unstained white shirt that looked to be made of good quality fabric. His faded grey jeans had both knees ripped out of them.

"My partner is waiting for us just up ahead, we'll talk more there."

"Partner?" Nikki hissed suspiciously, "I thought you were coming alone."

"It's only my brother, Chas. You remember him, don't you?" Ave asked with a twinkle in his eye. Nikki rolled her eyes. Sloan gave her a confused look.

"Never mind," Nikki said dismissively. Ave gestured with his hand for Xannon to gather up her group and hurry up. The night would not last forever, and they had to finish their task and blow the warehouse before the sun came up.

"I don't think we've met," Wolf said to Ave as they walked, holding out his hand. "I'm-" Ave held up his hand to stop him, before taking Wolf's and shaking it.

"I don't want to know your name. It'll make it easier for me when I'm captured and interrogated if I don't have anything to give up."

"When?" Wolf said, surprised.

"I'm not foolish enough to think I will get away with things like this forever. Unlike Xannon, I have not grown up in the imperial courts of Boolie surrounded in secrets and lies and trickery, so I'm not so good at the subtleties that go along with them. I know eventually I will be captured, and I can't be expected to hold out forever. Imperial soldiers have been known to be quite… persuasive," Ave explained, peeling back his right sleeve to show several deep gashes and painful burns.

"Oh god," Wolf muttered, disgusted but not really surprised by their callousness.

"Indeed," Ave agreed. "I earned these wounds by simply mouthing off as a child. Ah, there's Chas, can you see him?" he asked, skilfully turning the conversation away from his injuries. Wolf followed Ave's pointing finger to a light that glinted not too far off in the darkness. Drawing closer, Wolf could see that it was a Lectro-lamp being held by a man that looked a lot like Ave, but a little younger. His ears perked hopefully as they drew closer.

"Oh, Lady Xannon, has Nicola come with you?" he asked.

"Yes," Nikki snapped, "I'm here," and she stepped out from behind Wolf. Chas tried to strangle a strange smile, but didn't quite get it.

"Right," Ave said, bringing the attention of the group back to him despite his quiet voice. "Chas and I brought the explosives. I trust you brought your own personal noisemakers to this party?" Nikki smiled venomously in response to Ave's question. From her thick, dark jacket she pulled a projectile pistol equipped with a silencer.

"Noisemakers, check," she hissed. Her voice had changed, now it was more… snakelike. Sloan could feel Nikki's readiness to kill peel off her in waves. She looked up into her eyes, and what she found there scared her even more than Wolf's rage.

In her eyes was an animal. A vicious animal with sharp fangs and a black heart. An animal that enjoyed death and destruction and the pain that came with it. The gun disappeared back into her jacket. As it went, Sloan saw the glint of two ten inch hunting blades. The sharp edge of their shafts was the purest gleaming silver a blade could ever be. The other half of the shaft was so black it was as if someone had taken space and condensed it into a weapon. It looked like a longer version of Wolf's weapon.

Nikki didn't even notice Sloan stumble backwards, away from her in fear. What was happening to the people Sloan loved?

XXX

How they had managed to get to their current location without being shot dead, Sloan could not fathom. You knew as soon as you set foot over the zone boundary, because it was crawling with soldiers and gundroids. Sloan had accidentally stepped out at the wrong time on one occasion, almost right into one's line of view. Had Chas not grabbed her back into shadows, the outcome could have been disastrous.

She had started a little prayer as soon as they entered the target zone and had done her best to push her problems out of her mind. She was still praying two hours later as she stared down their target.

From the air, it had looked like just another ordinary warehouse, but seeing it from the ground, it was obvious that it wasn't like the others. The regular, rusted out, corrugated sides had been replaced by thick black steel, smooth and lacking a single imperfection. Staggered every six feet were floodlights so bright it looked like the entire perimeter of the place was stuck forever in daylight. Just outside the light, farthest from the warehouse, she could see several armed guards patrolling the perimeter. Sloan glanced back at the rest of the crew, they were all hiding in the shadow of another warehouse not far off, surveying the best way to execute the plan. Sloan couldn't see how it was possibly going to work.

"Okay," she whispered, "so which one of us was the one in charge of coming up with a way to get in?"

"The only way we could make it is if we took care of every single sentry. If we don't, they'll surely call for reinforcements. That is something we must avoid at all costs," Ave answered. A growing feeling of dread was beginning to congeal in the pit of her stomach.

"So how many guards are there?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"The most the reports have said is eleven," Chas responded.

"Oh great. That's only what, one and a bit each?"

"If we were all going out there, yes, that would be true," Nikki's snake voice answered. She produced from under her jacket one of her beautiful knives. "I'll make you a bet," she told Leon, "15 credits say I can get more than you." Leon pulled out one of his own scimitars.

"I think I'll have to take that bet," he agreed. In a flash, Nikki fled her hiding place. Sloan watched in horror as Nicola crossed the darkness with Leon hot on her heels, their blades glinting in the night. The expanse that seemed so huge just moments ago was now frighteningly small.

"Hey!" one of the guards yelled as Nikki drew near, "you can't, augh!" he screamed as the silver blade tore through his flesh like water. Another guard ran to his aid, only to be cut down with the same ease.

"Better get a move on!" Sloan heard Nikki tease. Leon simply growled in response. Nikki and Leon, working in perfect time, systematically slaughtered the sentries that barred their entrance to the warehouse. The thing that terrified Sloan was how much Nikki looked like Leon just then. They were both such good killers, and they were both_ enjoying_ themselves.

As suddenly as the yelling and the carnage had begun, it stopped. The silence that settled back over the night seemed morbid after the slaughter Sloan had just witnessed.

Wolf, seeing the stunned look on her face, walked over and helped her to her feet. Sloan's head slowly rotated around. When she saw who was holding her, she came back to her senses, if only enough to pull herself out of his grasp and stagger a foot away to lean on the nearby building. Her eyes came up to meet his, then fell again. It easy to see how deeply shaken she was by Nikki's bloodlust. If Sloan hadn't known about it from their time together in Sector Y, Wolf deduced it had to be something Red Generation had managed to bring out in her.

Sloan cringed as the gravel crunched next to her, heralding Nikki's otherwise silent arrival. Nicola didn't seem to notice as she rounded on Leon with a demonic smile.

"I managed to hit six. How many did you fell, Leon?" she goaded. Leon's fists clenched.

"Soon I'll pay you back in triple," he promised. Her only response was a sneer.

"Are you sure the coast is clear?" Xannon asked to break them up.

"We're quite positive," Nikki answered, still with that frightening grin on her face.

"Alright, let's move in then, we're just losing time here," Xannon decided. Sloan gratefully took the chance to break away and jogged towards the warehouse, pushing past Nikki and leaving the rest of the group behind.

Wolf watched in alarm Nikki's eyes snap to Sloan's moving body. She looked for a moment like she was going to attack. A look of shock and confusion suddenly swept over her features. It was as if the thought of hurting Sloan had scared her out of her battle rage. She turned to Xannon as if for some kind of reassurance, but Xannon was talking to Ave and didn't notice. Nikki looked down at the bloodied blades in her hands like she had only been vaguely aware of their presence until that moment. She looked up at Wolf with that same questioning look, but the monster in her eyes regained control as Leon swept past, muttering something to her. Wolf followed close behind Nikki. He glanced up ahead and saw Sloan's shoulders go rigid as she stepped over a body.

They collected at a service entrance in back of the warehouse. Chas had the face plate off the push button lock and was toying around with its insides. Ave was busy handing everyone an explosive from a burlap bag. Eight people, eight explosives. They were making sure this warehouse would fall.

"I got it!" Chas announced triumphantly as the panel gave off a high pitched chime. The still attached front lit up, asking for identification. The smile slid of Chas' face. "Well that's not good."

"What's wrong?" Sloan asked.

"It's asking for fingerprint identification. That's something even I can't fake," Chas said unhappily, trying unsuccessfully to figure out in his head a way around it. Nikki and Leon exchanged glances with each other, then turned their gazes at a nearby corpse.

"Would just a sentry's thumbprint work?" Nikki asked. The look on Chas' face said he knew what she was getting at, and he wasn't pleased.

"Uh, yeah, I guess that would work," he conceded.

"Mhmn…" Nikki turned and walked off a little into the dark. A few seconds later, they heard the sound of a knife slicing through flesh and bone. When Nikki returned to the light, she was holding the severed thumb of one of the nearby sentries. She held out the thumb to Chas, who held up his hands.

"You do it," he told her in disgust, standing up and walking over to his brother. "So she's an Unnatural," Sloan heard him hiss quietly.

"She does not judge you, and you will do the same for her," Ave warned. Chas' eyes dropped.

The panel beeped again and welcomed a Lieutenant William Hull. Sloan swallowed hard. William Hull would never be welcomed anywhere again. After it had served its purpose, Nikki threw the digit away.

"Everyone ready?" Xannon asked. The group took that as a signal to draw there weapons and hold them at the ready. Xannon nodded with satisfaction. "Nicola, would you do the honours?"

"Certainly, miss." And Nikki wheeled around and burst through the automatic door.

XXX

What happened once they entered the warehouse was very anticlimactic. It was deserted. A thin layer of dust said that not one person had been inside the warehouse in a long time. Sloan, secretly a little relieved, holstered her weapon. Panther walked up to the nearest crate and flipped back the cloth cover, revealing about 60 glass containers filled with a blue substance. He squinted as he read the label.

"Anti… hydro… nuc-le-carbon," he muttered, glancing at Xannon for clarification.

"It's a popular antidepressant. The makers want to know how much a patient can take before it becomes toxic to the body. They are also interested in finding out what it does to patients without severe depression," she explained. Her eyes clouded over. "Preliminary findings say that an overdose can cause damage to respiratory and nervous systems."

"And let me guess," Wolf said, "they figured that out by trying testing on Red Generation prisoners?"

"Exactly," Xannon snarled. She looked at the explosives in her hand. "Let's blow this place sky high."

"So what this stuff?" Sloan asked, not hearing Xannon's quiet call to action. She was holding up a red liquid.

"Does it say Biocarnivorous?"

"Yeah, I think that's what it says here," Sloan answered, rechecking the label.

"That is used specifically for torture and interrogation. After someone is given it, anything they eat or drink burns their throat so painfully, it's as if they've just swallowed flames. It doesn't wear off until the antidote is given."

"So if they already know it works, how come they sent more here?"

"To check the potency of the batch." Sloan shivered. She had seen a lot of pretty bad stuff happen to little kids, but nothing like this.

"I vote I put my explosive right here," she said.

"No, Sloan, I want you to climb that support beam and stick it up near the top," Wolf told her, "unless of course you can't make it up there, and I have to do it instead."

"Are you kidding?! That's easy!" she replied, dashing across the warehouse to climb the pole. Wolf smiled a little. It was funny, listening to her light-hearted voice fill such an evil space, and after seeing something like the carnage outside. With the device in one hand, she jumped onto the beam and began to shimmy her way up at an incredibly fast rate. Wolf wasn't sure if even he could do any better.

"Okay, that's one," he said, then brought his voice up so that Sloan could hear the next teasing words, "unless of course Sloan falls and cracks her skull open!" he had to stifle another smile when he heard Sloan blow him a raspberry from a third of the way up. It was good to see that somewhere between her hiding spot and now, she had bounced back from his outburst. But then, Sloan never did seem to stay mad long. "Where else?" he asked Xannon.

"Well, I've already planted two directly in the crates, Leon, yours needs to go on that support beam," she pointed at the beam in the corner the exact opposite of Sloan. Leon, who had been leaning on it before being addressed, turned and started climbing.

"Nicola, yours goes in the crates on the other side, same with you, Wolf. Alright how many is that…" she slowly numbered them off in her head, As Wolf followed her finger around the room, a realization dawned on him.

"Hey, where did Ave go?" everyone else looked around. Ave was nowhere to be seen.

"Ave stayed outside. He wanted to make sure that if one of them manage to call reinforcements, he would be able to tell us before his capture," Xannon explained, still deep in thought. "Okay… alright, Chas and Panther, do you think you could climb those last two beams?"

"I don't see why not," Panther decided after sizing up the climb. Chas only nodded.

"Then go, everybody go. We're on overtime here, I can feel it." Everybody scattered across the warehouse, placing their respective devices and arming them. Wolf realized then that he had never shown Sloan how to do that, but she must have been alright because she hadn't called down for help.

He looked up when he finished his job, trying to spot Sloan on the catwalk high above them. She was leaning way over the railing, watching Panther climb back down. Wolf was just about to call her to come down as well, when suddenly her head turned to look behind her, and she leaned out of view. Wolf rose from the kneeling position he had adopted to place the bomb and walked backwards, craning his neck to try and see what Sloan was doing. The catwalk she was standing on blocked his view, so he gave up and instead walked over and stood next to Xannon.

"This is good," she murmured, "we're almost done. The sooner we leave the better."

"You always get so over anxious. Everyone who knows we're here is lying dead outside," Wolf said to calm her. She smiled and nodded, but continued to pace and shift from foot to foot as the others finished up. This bothered Wolf, too. Usually, when Xannon had a very bad feeling about something, it was warranted.

"Anyways, let's-"

"Uh, guys!" Xannon was cut off by Sloan's worried yell. Xannon's eyes snapped to Wolf, as though her worst fears had been realized. The comm. on Xannon's arm crackled to life. Ave's voice, barely more than a strangled whisper, wheezed out,

"Run." The next second, the door exploded open.

XXX

Sloan gasped as the force of the explosion blew both Xannon and Wolf off their feet. A scuffling sound had alerted Sloan to the presence of someone outside, and by the time she had been able to climb to one of the tiny windows, she had seen one or two armed, imperial soldiers run out of sight. If only she had been able to spot them sooner.

At first she had thought that Ave had given them up, but as the men rushed through the door, Sloan noticed an ape in black power armour. From the ferocious looks of him, he was the one in charge. His hand was around the neck of Ave, who hung lifelessly at his side. Chas cried out and looked like he was about to jump over the railing to save him. Sloan grabbed the back of his coat and jerked him backwards, out of view.

"What are you doing?!" Chas screeched, "my brother, he… he's got my brother!" The sounds of blaster fire echoed in the cavernous space. Someone screamed. Sloan didn't recognize the voice. There was a metallic sound as armour hit cement floor. Sloan glanced backwards nervously. She should be down there. She turned back to Chas.

"You have to stay here," she told him plainly. She held up her hand when he tried to protest. "We're just mercs. If this goes bad, we can always just hightaill it home, but not you. If they see your face, they will hunt all over this planet for you. You'll be as good as dead."

"But, my brother…"

"You're brother is dead! He just hasn't stopped breathing yet," Sloan shouted, ignoring the tears that were welling in Chas' eyes. There would be time for apologies later. Chas must have realized that she was right, because he didn't try to protest again, he simply hung his head to cry.

Sloan ran back to the railing. They were far outnumbered. The soldiers had pinned them in a corner and were moving in for the kill. The Ape leader just sat back and watched with that same look of sick enjoyment that had been on the face of the fox on the train. Sloan couldn't see a way to get down without being seen. She took a few steps backwards, keeping her side pressed against the beam.

Something in her pocket made a scraping sound as it brushed against the support beam. Confused, she reached in and pulled out the tiny knife she had chosen back in the _Nicell_ armoury. She looked at it carefully, wondering if maybe it could help her. As she ran her fingers along it, they connected with a small button at the very base of the hilt. Thinking she had nothing to lose, she pressed it.

The blade of the weapon lit up blue, its edge dancing and immaterial. It gave off a slight hum as it moved. A vibroblade. She remembered Wolf saying something about them. Vibroblades could cut through almost anything. She looked at the blade, she looked at the beam.

No. That would be crazy. Totally insane. But then, how else was she going to get down? Sighing, but knowing she had no alternative, she looked down. If she screwed up, she would be landing a crate full of some dangerous orange chemical. She pulled Wolf's bandana up around her neck. She inhaled. It smelled like him. At the same second, she heard him bark in pain.

"Shit. Well, here goes nothing." she drew back with all her might, then plunged the blade into the steel post. Without giving herself time to think about what she was doing, she pulled out her pistol and jumped. Her weight jerked on the blade and started it cutting through the metal. She started picking up speed, and it didn't take long before she knew she was going way to fast. She braced herself for impact.

_Crash!_

She felt the containers shatter, the glass pierce her flesh and the chemicals splash onto her. Someone yelled her name. Someone closer squawked with surprise. She aimed for the closer noise, firing without really seeing, trying to shake the burning in her eyes. With her free hand she grabbed the edge of the container and vaulted over it. Able to see a little clearer, she started firing into the crowd of soldiers.

A plasma round shot past her. It was so close its heat burned the skin on her right cheek and sent her staggering.

The pain cleared her eyes at once and banished all other pain from her body. She could no longer feel the glass shards. All the soldiers had suddenly stopped running, attacking. It felt like they were all standing, watching her. No, that wasn't quite right. They were moving, but slowly, heavily, like they were under water. The one who had tried to shoot her in the head was slowly trying to line up another shot. Sloan aimed and fired. The man jerked backwards at full speed, struck in the head by her bullet.

Instead of firing randomly, she was able to pick perfect target. She was only vaguely aware of her own movements, simply finding herself wherever she needed to be to get the right shot. A small part of her mind wandered back six months. So this is what it felt like to have one of her episodes out of the cockpit.

She heard someone yelling. The others had gained some ground, thanks to her. Leon's long scimitar sliced through three people at once. Nikki stepped with her whole body into a lunge, skewering someone on her blade. Xannon was fighting off a half dozen soldiers, her plasma blade whirling through the air like she was in the middle of some intricate dance. Panther had found cover behind a crate, firing plasma rounds over the top. She couldn't see Wolf.

Concerned for her leader's safety she began to glance around, trying to find any trace of him. She was so intent on finding him, she didn't notice that her control was slipping away. Things around her were speeding up again. She didn't notice until a heavy-set wolf in imperial uniform stepped towards her, plasma blade raised. He caught her so off guard that she could only stand there and watch as the shining green blade fell deftly down, aimed for the spot between her neck and right shoulder. With the arcing path it was on, it would split her in half.

A microsecond before it hit, something ploughed into her with a full bodied tackle, knock both Sloan and saviour behind a stack of crates.

"You got distracted," Wolf's gruff voice muttered in her ear, before rolling off her and jumping up.

"What do you…?" Sloan started.

"When you've started, you can't get distracted. If you lose your concentration, you lose the… trance." It sounded like he didn't think that was the right word for it, but threw it in because he didn't have time to think of anything better. Sloan looked up at him. She could tell by the look in his eye that he hadn't lost his. "Gather everyone up, we need to go, now. We can't hold these guys off forever," Wolf told her as he searched for a new target.

"But what about…" she never got to finish her sentence. Wolf's ears picked as he caught sight of a soldier that was hiding not too far away. He had a bead on Panther, so Wolf jumped him. Sloan stayed crouched, finding everyone's position. They were being backed into a corner again, by Nikki and Leon had managed to cut a swath to the door. The explosion that had knocked the door in had also started a fire, so Sloan knew if they didn't get away now, the fire would reach the explosives before they got a chance to cut a new path. She caught Xannon's eye. Sloan pointed to the door. Xannon nodded, understanding. Wolf had grabbed Panther, so Sloan made a break for it, sparing less than a glance at the catwalk where she had left Chas. There was no sign of movement, so she could only hope that he had escaped in the chaos.

The ape realized where they were heading a few moments too late, and by the time he shouted the order to stop them, everyone was out the hole blown where the door used to be.

It was pitch black outside. Sloan stopped to get her bearings, only to be knocked into by Panther.

"Don't stop, just run!" Wolf ordered. Sloan, more afraid outside than she had ever been during the fight inside the warehouse, ran blindly into the night, oblivious to the locations of any of her team mates.


	11. Chapter 11

Sloan didn't stop running until her legs threatened to give out on her. Staggering against the side of a warehouse, she slid to the ground, panting hard and trying to stop the indescribable pain in her body from causing her to vomit. The burn that covered a hand sized part of her face seemed right then to be the least of her worries, although had it struck her a fraction of an inch higher up, it would have blinded her.

She tried to reach down and feel her legs for injures and found the arm that she had recently had full mobility in would hardly move. Still, she didn't need to touch it, she knew it was bad. She could feel the blood flowing out of her. Her eyes, though hampered by the irritation that had returned to them, had become a little more accustomed to the darkness. She could see blood glistening on her pants. That's what had soaked them.

There was something else glistening besides her pants. It was sticking out of her leg at an odd angle. She reached out for it with her left and not so badly damaged hand. As soon as she touched the smooth surface, she knew it was glass. There was about four inches of it sticking out her leg, and she didn't know how deep in it was. There were more shards up and down her body, but none so bad.

She wrestled with herself about whether or not to take it out. If she left it in, every step would be horribly painful and the sharp glass would shred her muscle. If she took it out, there would be bleeding, lots and lots of bleeding. She didn't think she had the strength to bandage it, so she decided the best thing would be just to leave it for a time.

She rested her head back on the cool metal of the building. Her body felt like a blast furnace. Knowing that she was very exposed out in the open, and knowing what the soldiers would do to her if she was caught, she still couldn't muster up the strength to find better shelter. Slowly, she closed her eyes, hoping for a little rest.

She jumped a mile as a huge fireball suddenly lit up the night sky, accompanied by a thunderous noise. She watched as a huge plume of fire and smoke went up where their target had been. She smiled, at least they had accomplished their mission. She was also very impressed at how far she had run before tiring.

Her smile faded into confusion as she felt a warm pinprick on her shoulder. She looked over, and saw a tiny hole burned in her shirt on her shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat. She had just been hit with burning chemicals that had been thrown into the air by the explosion. Using the strength sudden fear afforded her, she just managed to drag herself into an alley between two closely placed warehouses, hugging the wall of one for cover. She had run far enough that the majority of it landed closer to the blast sight, but it was still a good 15 minutes before she stopped seeing little red flashes as the chemicals landed.

She was so fixated on watching for the burning embers that she almost didn't hear the approaching footsteps. Her body stiffened when she finally did, but then relaxed with a gasp of pain as the glass sliced into her tightening muscles. She reached for her holster, but found it empty. The gun had been lost in the confusion of running. Her hand slipped down to her hunting knife, but a familiar voice made her stop.

"Sloan? Is that you?" a sigh of relief escaped her lips, along with most of her fear. Tears welled around the corner of her eyes. She wasn't alone anymore.

"Wolf. Oh, thank god." Her voice was chalked full of emotion. She heard him limp over, sit down beside her. "Wolf, are you hurt?" she asked, praying that his injuries weren't as bad as hers.

"Not much, a little cut." Sloan's fingers found his leg and started searching for the wound. She could feel him trying to bat her away in a show of embarrassment, but she found the 'little cut'. It was more along the lines of a deep gash following the length of his outer right leg.

"Wolf, that's not a… oh god."

"It seems bad to you because you haven't known anything worse. If anything, you should be more worried about yourself. You reek of blood, I can tell you're just covered. The sun will come up soon. We'll take care of things then." He rested his hand, for only a moment, on Sloan arm. "Remember, the darkest hour is always the one that comes before the dawn, so hang in there."

Sloan nodded though she knew he couldn't see her. She repeated that comforting phrase over and over in her mind.

_The darkest hour comes just before the dawn. The darkest hour comes just before…_

"What about the others?" she asked weakly. _…just before the dawn. The darkest…_

"We all got separated. After Panther tripped over something, I'll assume it was you, I lost him."

_The darkest hour…_

"Do you think they're still alive?" _…before the dawn._ No answer. _… hour comes just…_ "Wolf?"

"Don't talk, you should save your strength."_…before the dawn._

XXX

Sloan's head jerked up as a hand rested on her arm. It had been the pain that had woken her. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she must have, because now the whole place, save their sheltered hiding spot, was bathed in the first warm rays of daylight. It was Wolf's hand that was on her arm. He was staring at her with a slightly relieved look, as if he half expected her not to wake up.

"Morning," he said, half as a joke. Sloan smiled, just happy that he was there with her and she hadn't dreamt him to life in the night. He was kneeling on both his legs. Although the cut on the lower part of his leg looked bad to Sloan, it obviously wasn't causing him any discomfort. Either that, or he was very good at masking his pain.

"I was looking at your leg. A lot of these shards I think would be best if we just left them in until Nicell can take care of them. But this one, I don't know about this one…" he was looking down at the glass piece –more like a chunk really- that was plunged into her leg about four inches above her knee.

"I was looking at that one. It's gotta' come out. I can't walk with it in, not anymore," Sloan explained plainly.

"The only problem with that is if I pull it out the wrong way, it could sever your muscle," Wolf warned.

"And if you leave it in it'll tear my muscle to shreds. Better to get the excruciating pain over with now, I think." Sloan shifted her leg a little, and had to bite down on her lip to suppress a cry. "It has to come out. Now," she whispered. Wolf looked like he was about to try and talk her out of it, then sighed and unzipped his coat. There, clinging to his chest, was a survival bag. It hugged his torso well, and with his baggy beige coat over top of it, it was impossible to notice.

"Clever bastard," Sloan said jokingly. Wolf pulled out a sterile bandage, dressings, and some disinfecting foam. Sloan hoped it was the kind with clotting agent in it.

"I don't have anything for you to bite on while I pull this out," Wolf said apologetically. Sloan shook her head, a sign that he should just do it. "Okay then, on three I'll-"

"No!" Sloan cried. "Don't tell me, just do it!" Sloan closed her eyes, bunching her hands into fists. She couldn't scream, not if they were still being searched for. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.

_The darkest hour comes just before the dawn. The darkest hour…_

She heard the ripping sound before she felt it. The pain scorched up her leg and up to her brain like flames. As soon as it reached its destination, her teeth bit down so hard she felt the coppery taste of blood fill her mouth. Her eyes snapped open. The shard was lying on the ground next to Wolf, who was feverishly spraying the wound with foam. The glass had an extra three inches to it now that it was out of Sloan.

The sight of the glass, the relief it was gone, the pain of it's passing, they all welled up in her and combined with her blood loss to make her dizzy. Everything started shifting in slow circles, making her motion sick. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, her head slumped onto her chest and she passed out cold.

XxX

"Sloan?" Wolf asked quietly, jostling her shoulder. For now it was okay if she was just out cold, but if she was dead… He checked her pulse. It was strong enough too easy his worries, for the time being.

Needing to get at the wound, he ripped off the leg of her pants below the knee, and rolled the excess up until it was above the wound. He watched her face as he carefully laid the bandage on, wrapping it with the dressing. After finishing his task, he rolled what was left of her pant leg back over the injury.

He was about to pick her up and move on quickly, when a voice made him stop. It sounded familiar, but he was sure that it wasn't a good voice to hear. It was close, off to the right a little. Falling to his hands and knees, he crept to the end of the alley. Being careful not to be seen, he peered around the corner just far enough to see the speaker.

The white fox from the train was pacing nervously only a few feet from Wolf. He was wringing his hands and glancing around. He was speaking quickly to an avian woman.

"What am I going to do? If I don't get her back, do you know how badly King is going to kill me?"

"Ballas, I do not think the situation is a dire as you believe…" the avian cooed, trying to calm him. There was an insincerity about her soothing voice that put Wolf on edged.

"Not as dire!? You've never met King before, have you? He has a hundred different ways to kill me, slowly and painfully. Who's going to stop him when he decides my failure is too big to ignore?"

"The Emperor?" Ballas paused for a moment, staring at the avian like she had just asked what two plus two equalled.

"The Emperor?" he echoed. "You really think the Emperor is going to pardon me for being an incompetent moron?"

"Well, I do not see why he should get so mad. I mean, I understand she is Red Generation property, and she is probably somewhat expensive, but-"

"'Probably somewhat expensive!?'" Ballas half screamed. He caught himself after seeing the look on her face. "I… I'm sorry, I just… Salora, did they really send you out here to help me without telling you anything? I mean, she's dangerous."

"It must be so, because you are making no sense to me," Salora explained. Ballas sighed.

"I can't believe this. She isn't just somewhat expensive, she's one of the _most_ money and time intensive projects Red Gen has ever started. If they lose her, it'll be a disaster."

"But why did they bother? I mean, she is only a foot soldier, yes?"

"Absolutely not. She's a Special Operation's Unit. You've seen them, haven't you?"

"Yes, I think I've worked with some. The killing machines, with the steel grey eyes. I've never seen something kill the way they do. She is one of them, that little thing you showed me?"

"Yes. Well, not yet. Those Special Ops are so good at what they do because they have those bio-programs. The programs need a special type of DNA to work, 'else they just kind of fall apart. This girl's DNA has been tailored to accept some of the most dangerous programs ever written. So far she's the only one, sort of a pilot program, and now she's gone! Augh, I even had her in my hands!"

Ballas' last comment made Wolf's blood run cold. His fears had been confirmed, he was sure the little girl they spoke of was the one passed out behind him. He paused, not sure what to do. Special Ops, bio-programs, treated DNA, it all made his head spin.

"At least we have one lead." Salora's voice commanded Wolf's attention once again. She was staring coldly at someone out of Wolf's line of vision. He could hear the person huffing and puffing, like they had just run a marathon.

"Really, I don't see one," Nicola's distressed voice hissed.

"You think you're quite, clever, don't you. Just because you escaped Red Generation once. Just because you are supposed to be better then any other special Operations Unit in creation. Mhmn, Eclipse?" Salora asked. Nikki did not answer, so the avian continued. "That is your designation, isn't? Eclipse, because you so much more advanced than the rest of your… species. The rouge that your organization has deemed not fit to live."

"Eclipse was just a slave name, _is_ just a slave name. My name is Nicola. But you can call me Nikki."

Wolf grimaced, mocking your captors was not high on the list of ways to survive being a prisoner.

"So, you tell me you name is Nicola? Fine, that is a good start. Maybe you can tell me something else. Something like, where is the Red Generation property that you are hiding, and who was that man from the train. He cannot be her father, she was created artificially, in a lab."

"I don't know what you're talking about, lady. I wasn't on any train."

"Liar!" Ballas snapped. "You're lying. I saw you on the train with the girl. You can't lie to me, it's against you're programming. Who was that man!?" There was a pause. Wolf held his breath. Was she really going to tell them?

"He is…" she stopped for a moment, then a little smile came into her voice. "Her guardian angel. A man that will go to any lengths to protect her from you, and if you test this truth, he'll rip you to pieces."

Salora made a noise of disgust in her throat. She disappeared from view for a moment. There was the sound of gravel being moved, and she came back into view holding a badly bleeding Nikki. Nikki's hands were locked securely behind her back with thick black handcuffs.

"It is no use," Salora snarled, "There is nothing we can get out of this one. We will take her to King. If she is a unit for Special Operations, she will have a camera eye implant and memory crystals. If she won't give us the information, we will take it from her."

The look of utter hatred and disgust in Nikki's eyes said that the threat was true. That meant King could see and hear everything Nikki had seen and heard since she had escaped. Where the children were hiding, how they were being smuggled away from their training camps, and who was behind it would all be in his hands. That spelled disaster and death for all those children, for Xannon and her cohorts, Wolf and his team, and Sloan.

And Sloan, why her name had broken through the multitude of others in peril, even over his own, he didn't know. How to save Nikki without starting a firefight, he didn't know. If he could even trust either her or Sloan, he didn't know.

There was no more time to think or know. All he could do was hope he was making the right decision. All he could do was act.


	12. Chapter 12

Ballas screamed as a plasma bolt hit him square in the back. It threw him to the ground, but otherwise did not harm him. Instead it spread out over his specially designed armour. Noting this, Wolf pulled out his hunting blade and threw it. It buried itself to the hilt in Ballas' knee. Armour made specifically to deflect plasma would offer little protection from projectile strikes. Ballas, who had been trying to regain his feet, crumpled in agony. Wolf rounded on Salora.

She was ready for him. She had thrown Nicola to the ground and had armed herself with a plasma staff. The plasma flowing to one end of the staff was blue, the other green. The colours blended together as it moved, with dizzying results. Wolf assumed that, like the swirling ink on her feathers, it was a tactic to confuse her enemies. She held the blade in a defensive position in front of her. Wolf drew himself up to his full height, hoping that his size would intimidate the small woman.

"You are the man from the train," Salora stated. It wasn't a question, she was sure. She glanced at the alley he had sprang from. Wolf followed her gaze. She was wondering if Sloan was with him. She folded back out of her defences, her staff falling against her side. "Listen to me. You are a reasonable man, yes?"

"Some would debate it." Wolf found himself using Nikki's sarcastic tactics, but he was in a different position. He had not dropped his weapon, so he was in control. Salora laughed, but insincerity had returned to her voice.

"Very funny, but please, for a moment we must be serious. This girl that you are hiding, do you not know how dangerous she could be?" she asked. Wolf said nothing, the truthful answer was no. "You are protecting her now, but who will protect you when the day comes that she decides she is to strong for you. Who will stop her from doing what she was born to do?"

Again, Wolf did not answer. She was making a valid point; he had no idea what Sloan was capable of.

"So what do you propose?"

"King knows how to deal with creatures like her, he has done it for many years. It would be the safest thing for all if she was sent with him."

Salora made perfect sense, it all made perfect sense, but somehow his mind wouldn't even consider the idea. He shook his head no without realizing what he was doing.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he told her simply.

"Then it seems we have a problem." A blue blade came slashing out of nowhere. Wolf barely noticed it in time to duck out of its way. "Because Ballas and I cannot do without her either." The blade struck the ground, sending up a small cloud of superheated dust. Wolf tried to bring his pistol up to shoot, but the green blade sliced through the back of his hand, forcing him to drop the gun. Dropping to pick it up with his off hand, he narrowly missed being cut in two. He rolled forward, the goal to knock Salora off her feet. She was too quick for him. Something struck hard the side of his face, making him see starts.

"Wolf!" Nikki had been fidgeting furiously during the encounter, and had managed to bring the manacles to the front of her body instead of locked behind. She held out her wrists now. Wolf understood. Pulling out his vibroblade, he tried to slit the manacles down the center. What should have sliced them completely apart left only a score mark in the dark metal. Slowly she began to work at shearing them apart. Wolf couldn't believe she was even trying. The metal was far too thick for that.

He turned, and was immediately confronted by Salora's blade. He threw his arm up to stop it, and connected with the shaft right next to the blue blade. Two inches to the right, and he would have lost his hand.

"All this for a girl who will use you and destroy you when your usefulness has ended," Salora growled.

"You don't know that!" He used brute strength to force her back off of him. He felt her shift off balance, and so continued with the push. His effort sent them both tumbling to the ground. Salora struggled to regain the upper hand, but with her quickness rendered useless, Wolf could easily pin her. She continued to thrash about, but there was no use. Eventually, she stilled, staring Wolf daggers.

"Well, you won, what now? Are you going to collect your prize?" Wolf seemed confused for a moment, then a look of disgust spread over his face when he realized what she meant.

"Ugh, please. I may be a mercenary, but I'm still a gentleman. However, I can't have you following me, so…" Salora braced herself for a deathblow, but Wolf had no intentions of killing her. From his hidden med pack he produced a syringe of a powerful sedative, which he emptied into Salora's arm. Her entire body tensed, and he was worried for a moment that she was having an allergic reaction, but then her body relaxed completely, and she was gone.

"She knows what you look like," Nikki warned, "We should kill her. Him too." She nodded at Ballas. Wolf had almost forgotten about him. He was still sprawled on the ground, nursing his wounded knee. Or had been nursing it, until he heard Nikki's suggestion. He now sat still as a statue, staring at Wolf as if the pathetic look on his face would some how sway the seasoned mercenary. Wolf watched the young man for awhile, his ears flicking back and forth as he thought.

"It doesn't matter. King already knows who I am, and I would like to keep my body count to a minimum." He walked purposely over Ballas and wrapped his fingers around the hilt, shifting it slightly. Ballas howled. "I would like to, but if I have to add a casualty or two…"

"No! No, I won't say anything to anyone, just don't kill us. Please!" Wolf listened to Ballas beg, looking disgusted.

"How did a whiny little shit like you ever become accepted into something as prestigious as the imperial army? Or has all this gone severely downhill since I've last been here?" Wolf questioned angrily. Ballas didn't answer, he want sure if he should. "So," Wolf continued after a short silence, absentmindedly changing his grip on the blade and making Ballas wince. "I have a preposition for you. You tell me everything you know about the girl you're after, and maybe you'll be able to save a few lives today."

"W-what about her?"

"Firstly, let's start with these Special Ops units and the bio-programs. What are they, and what to they have to do with Sloan."

"I can't possibly explain all this too you…"

"Why not? You've got time. Unless you have something better to do than live." He placed weight on the blade, shifting it in Ballas' leg

"Special Ops are soldiers!" He screamed. "They're made by Red Gen exclusively!"

"Now we're getting somewhere," Wolf said evenly. He took pressure off the knife. "Keep talking."

"O-okay, so, Red Gen specializes in making armies, right? Their pitch is that their soldiers go to war so your brothers and sisters don't have too."

"And no one cares if the soldiers being sent to war in their place happen to be children."

"It's amazing what people will overlook if it means saving their families. Anyways, that's beside the point right now. What are Special Ops… Well, they're Red Generation's elites, the best type that they make. They get months, sometimes years of training, whereas most other recruits only go through a crash course that takes a few weeks. In addition to the training, their minds and bodies are all altered to make them better at what they do."

"Which is killing."

"That's correct."

"And the programs?"

Ballas hesitated for a moment. Wolf reached for the knife.

"Ah, the programs!" Ballas cried to halt Wolf's movement. Wolf's eyes locked on Ballas', hand hovering above the hilt. "The programs are like… memories. They contain information for training and muscle memory, things like that. And they hold programs for a whole host of cybernetic implants. Special Ops take a lot to get ready, and they're horrendously expensive."

"So if someone had enough money, they could turn themselves into a killing machine."

"Not quite. To accept the programs, the person's DNA needs to be specially conditioned to accept random changes without destroying itself. The procedure is dangerous, and most don't survive. Then there are more to prepare of the body to accept the hard- and wetware, and they are just as risky. Although, the risk of death goes down dramatically if the procedures are administered before puberty."

"And that's why King wants to get his hands on Sloan so badly."

"Wrong again," Ballas said smugly.

"Excuse me?"

Ballas' tone changed quickly. "I, uh, I mean… your not wrong, per say, but your only part right. If this Sloan is the one that King is looking for, then she already had the procedure to make her DNA unstable. Of course, she would need her other procedures, and it would be better if she got those done as soon as possible."

"Already unstable? What does that mean for her?" Wolf asked. Ballas shrugged.

"It could mean nothing. Or it could mean that her cells are a ticking time bomb, on the edge of breaking down. No one really knows. That's why she's so special, she's a pilot project. I don't actually know a whole lot about her situation in particular."

Nikki had disappeared, and was now back at Wolf's shoulder. The manacles were gone. Wolf thought of the Bio-programs Ballas spoke of.

The look on Nikki's face told him it was time to go. He began to get back to his feet, then stopped. He looked as if he'd decided something. He reached down and grasped his hunting knife. With one forceful pull he wrenched it out of Ballas' body. Before the young man had time to scream, Wolf back-handed him. He hit him so hard, Ballas was out before his head smashed into the dusty ground.

"Well, that takes care of that."

"I still wish you'd killed him," Nikki snarled.

"I'll probably wish I had too," Wolf sighed, "but we have more pressing matters right now."

"Sloan looks terrible."

"Worse then when I left her?"

"Well…" Sloan had become very pale, and still hadn't woken up yet. Her hands were shaking, and her breath was uneven.

"Definitely worse than when I left her," Wolf murmured, his voice full of concern. There was no smell of infection about her. "Maybe poisoned by the chemicals?"

"I don't think so, but this isn't the place to talk about this. I want to be very far away from here before either of those two wakes up," Nikki decided. Wolf could only agree, and collected up his team mate. Sloan was shivering, despite the muggy warmth that hung in the air. She was mumbling something to herself. Wolf glanced over at Nikki, who was carefully looking back and forth at the end of the alley. He nodded to him to come forward once she was sure the coast was clear.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked him.

"The shuttle is over there," he pointed to their right, "and it's heading that way," he pointed behind them, "which means we need to go that way," he finished pointing straight ahead. "But shouldn't we move during the night?" Nikki didn't answer him, simply tipping her head to show she understood.

They moved quickly through the heat of the day, only stopping to trade Sloan between them occasionally. She rarely stirred, and even when she did it was only for a few minutes at a time, grabbing at Wolf or Nikki's coat with weak fingers and speaking incoherently.

When the sun began to set, they found their usual hiding place, visible as it was, and settled down for a nerve wracking night. Sloan was awake now, if not completely conscious. Her eyes had faded from rich almond to a hazy mud colour. She was looking around, trying to grip a reality that was as elusive as water. Wolf leaned down and pushed some stray hair out of her face. She looked up at him like she had only just realized he was there.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked quietly.

"Zone Fever," Nicola answered, "it has to be."

"What?" Wolf asked, pretending he didn't know what it was.

"I've seen it a lot. In the training camps it's rampant. It has a fast onset and goes away in just a few days, but those days can kill all but the strongest. High fever, followed only a few minutes later by terrible chills, and the hallucinations…"

"Are you telling me Sloan is dying?" Wolf said calmly, despite the unwelcome feelings that were welling up inside him. Nikki shook her head, but seemed unsure.

"You would know her strength better than me at this point."

"I don't know anything anymore. Not about her, and sure as hell not about you." His anger was as evident as his conflicted thoughts as he protectively held his sick ally. Any sane person – sane mercenary – would have labelled them a danger and left them both behind. Yet, it was Sloan, and for some reason that was enough for his mind to dismiss the thought of leaving her to die.

"Besides," he whispered to himself, "Who's ever heard of a sane mercenary." Nikki sat down, happy to finally be off her feet.

"She's how you knew, wasn't she?" she asked.

"Knew what?"

"When Lady Zindia asked if you had heard of Red Generation, you said you had. I thought maybe you were just lying, because no one ever tells the truth with questions like that."

"I'd heard some things about red Generation. Mostly from King." When Nikki didn't say anything, Wolf continued. "He said Sloan was dangerous. Was he telling the truth?"

Nikki's eyes flickered downward. She reached out and picked at a nonexistent piece of debris on her boot. Her answer came out as a whisper "Only if you let her into the wrong hands."

"Me?" Wolf sounded hostile, "why me?" His defensiveness made Nicola smile.

"You're too proud to say how much you care with words, but every other way you're screaming it."

Wolf was about to retort, but then shifted and felt the extra weight in his lap. He looked down. Sloan was asleep, her head resting on his crossed legs. He stared at her like she was some kind of alien. He didn't remember her cuddling up to him. He could hear Nikki softly laughing across from him.

"I hate your guts," he hissed at Nikki half-heartedly. He wanted to make a big show of pushing Sloan away, but instead he somehow found himself with his legs back under her head. She was trembling. Wolf coughed dryly.

"It doesn't have to be me… you could take her," Wolf tried, still trying to be convincing about not caring about her.

"Me? Never." She returned to the nonexistent speck of dust. "Never…"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a monster!" Nikki jerked to her feet. "You heard what Ballas said. A killing machine!" And she disappeared into the darkness around them. Wolf found himself clutching Sloan's shoulders. She was burning up.

"Unh!" She jerked away from him, pulling open her coat in the hopes of cooling her body down. She settled again on the other side of the alley.

Wolf was suddenly alone in the darkness.

XxX

The next day heralded no improvement in Sloan's condition. In fact, she deteriorated immensely. Nicola had only gone off a little ways to stand guard, and returned with the light.

"We should go, the Hunters will be on the move soon."

"Hunters?"

"That's right. They work best in the day, that's why we travel through the light. If we don't, they'll catch us." Then, more as an afterthought, she added; "not that they won't catch up eventually anyways."

Wolf didn't get a chance to ask what she meant by that. Just as he was about to open his mouth, a scream full of fear and frustration split the air. It had come from Sloan. She had somehow managed to find her way around a corner and out into the open without them noticing. Wolf and Nikki both ran to her, their previous hostility forgotten.

When they rounded the corner. It was Wolf's turn to break the silence.

"Sloan, What have you done!?"


	13. Chapter 13

The morning hailed no easing of her symptoms

Sloan had ripped the bandage off her wound and clawed it open. Shards of blood soaked glass were scattered around her. She had dug so deep into her injuries that her front was dyed red.

"Bugs!" she wailed, attacking her arms, "bugs, bugs! They're everywhere, all over me! They're coming out of me! Get them off, get them off!" she was sobbing, reaching to pull out another shard of glass. Wolf grabbed her hands, restraining them so she couldn't cause any more damage.

"Make them stop!" Sloan pleaded.

"Sloan, there are no bugs," Wolf told her calmly. Sloan looked at him like he had lost his mind. Holding both her hands in one of his, Wolf reached down and picked up a glass shard. "This is not a bug, it's glass from when you hurt yourself two days ago, remember?" He spoke gently, hoping to ease Sloan out of her delusion. Sloan was panting, exhausted from he effort of striking out at every part of her body.

"Not glass… bugs." She dragged her eyes up look at Wolf's face. Her pupils constricted in fear. "Bug…on your shoulder," she squeaked, her terrified gaze moving up his shoulder and over to rest on his eyepatch. She winced at it, watching the 'bug' do something she'd rather it not do.

"Sloan," Wolf said firmly, trying to get her attention.

"It's eating you…"

"Sloan!" His yell made her jump, and for the first time her attention focussed on him and not the hallucinated creatures running around. She stared up into his good eye, waiting for Wolf to speak again.

"We, need, to leave," Wolf said, speaking slowly to give each word more power. "There are people after you, they want to hurt you. I won't let them. Remember I said nothing bad would happen as long as I was around?" Sloan smiled and nodded, wrapping her arms around him so tight it felt as if she would never let go. Wolf picked her up and motioned to Nikki that it was time to go.

Nikki responded with only a nod and flicked her hand towards the end of the alley while she went in the other direction, glancing around nervously. She was afraid the Hunters had heard Sloan cry out. Finally turning and heading back towards the others, she wore a smile for Sloan's sake. For Wolf she nodded and gave the all clear. Somehow the Hunters had not heard.

She froze in mid stride. Frantically she motioned for Wolf to get out of sight. Wolf could see the urgency in her moves. He jumped back around the corner and crouched down, covering Sloan's head with his hand. His hope was that the familiarity of his touch would be enough to keep her silent. Nikki tumbled out of the alley on the opposite side from Wolf, curling up against the wall. She stared at them meaningfully, eyeing the open space that separated them, open space that was in plain view of the Hunters.

A crunch of gravel made Wolf's blood run cold. The Hunters had come after all. He leaned over ever so slightly to get a visual. Standing there were three vulpines; two males and a female. Their armour was blood red, and looked far too heavy for their bodies to carry. Their eyes held no irises or pupils, just one blank sphere of shining blue. On each cheek was a pulsing blue line that reached from there pale eyes down through their face and neck, out of sight into their armour. The female's armour seemed to be slightly more adorned then that of the others, so Wolf took her to be the leader.

They walked silently through the area, taking in every detail. One dirt coloured male stopped when it reached the blood and glass Sloan had left. The shards had all but sunk into the dust. All but enough for the Hunter to see. He turned his head to the female, and spoke to her in a long string of buzzes. She replied in a series of higher pitched whistles. So they were androids. They looked like formidable opponents, and Wolf wasn't sure if he could take even one of them, much less three. Add in their machine natures, and there was no hope of fighting through them.

Now that they knew they were on the right track, the Hunters were making their way slowly down the alley, trying to find clues that would tell them what direction Sloan had gone. Wolf's ears flattened against his head, it was only a matter of time before they found a footprint. He looked over to his right. As far as he could see, the way was clear of their mechanical predators. Glancing back at the Hunters, he saw that they were kneeling down, inspecting something. Wolf looked at Nikki, who silently agreed. It was time for him to take Sloan and get gone. Nikki would follow when she could.

Soundlessly rising to his feet, he quietly crept away from the scene. His eyes were glued to Nikki, who was watching the Hunters. She kept nodding her head, a sign that they hadn't heard him. He kept creeping away until he found another alley to slip into every step in the open space between them making his heart race. He hoped to catch Nikki's eye, but she did not look away from the androids. Reluctantly, he hurried out of sight, leaving Nicola behind.

Every step he took he was constantly on guard. Every alley mouth he paused to listen. Several times he had to crouch down and stay perfectly still to avoid the notice of a patrol. They had brought the Hunters out in droves, and every call became closer and closer. By some miracle, Sloan stayed quiet the entire time, her attention consumed by the bandana around her neck.

Wolf was crouched and hiding from a resting patrol when Nikki managed to catch up two hours after being left. She did not bring good news.

"They're right behind us. I had to take a longer route to get to you without being seen."

"We can't get past until these ones move away. I've looked around, it's all blocked. Everywhere I come out, there seems to be a patrol passing by," Wolf answered. He stared at Nikki, accurately translating the look on her face. "We've been had, haven't we?" His voice was not angry, hopeless, or upset at all, just disappointed he hadn't figured it out sooner. Nikki shared the same disappointment.

"I should have known what was going on. I forgot how tricky Hunters can be," she murmured. Her head snapped back in the direction they'd come, reacting to some small noise. When it turned out to be her imagination, she asked Wolf, "What now?"

Wolf glanced downed at Sloan. She was still awake, but didn't look completely aware of what was going on. She huddled close to the warmth of his body, completely helpless. Easy prey by any means. From her, his gaze turned to the filthy yellow sky, made all the worse for their little escapade some nights ago. It wasn't truly the sky he was staring at, but the thick layer of dirty clouds that perpetually surrounded the planet. He closed his eyes, letting the memory of those clouds take precedence over all others. He felt himself getting closer to the memory, his mind floating above his body, brushing against those greasy clouds. His consciousness angled downwards again. A rigid grid came into view, red the colour of dirt and rust. The spaces between the gridlines were coal black, some glossy, others scuffed and dull. Moving carefully around the grid were clusters of dots that reminded him of ants.

_The black spaces in the grid are the tops of warehouses,_ he decided, _and the dots are people_. He watched the multitude of well space dots move in a specific order. They were the imperial patrols. The two yellow dots hidden out of sight had to be Nikki and himself. He could see now just how grave their situation was. Clusters of white dots orbited the warehouses around the two yellow ones, slowly getting closer. They would be captured any minute.

Then he noticed something he couldn't account for. Behind them slightly, another yellow dot was coming slowly towards them. A white patrol dot turned from its usual place and connected for a moment, then disengaged. The yellow dot began moving again.

"Wolf!" Nikki's voice cut into his mind. The image dissolved as she shoved him and called his name again. "What are you doing?!" she snapped in whispers.

"Thinking," Wolf told her, still calm.

"Well stop thinking, they're coming!"

"From which way?" Nikki pointed in the direction they had been travelling. Wolf looked in the direction they'd come, thinking about the dot that had been the same colour as him and his allies.

"This way," he told her, standing. Nikki traced his gaze. She grabbed his coat.

"Are you crazy? The Hunters are that way!"

"The Hunters are every way," he told her, staring intensely into her eyes. He didn't have time to waste arguing with her.

A series of low grinding sounds –Hunterspeak– started Wolf running. A Hunter had overheard them. Nikki was hot on his heels, willing to follow Wolf anywhere, to her death if need be, to make sure the automatons did not lay their hands on Sloan.

Wolf wasn't sure where he was running to. Without the image in his mind, he had only a vague memory of where the slow moving dot had been had been, but the number three seemed to stick in his memory. Three alleys, maybe? It was all he had to go on. The first alleyway was only a few feet away, and by the time he crossed it he could hear a thickly accented voice yelling for his arrest, his head. The seemingly short distances between the alleys had somehow become a marathon. He heard Nikki's blade slash up through metal, then down through skin as he reached the second alley. Someone screamed in pain, and there was a general clamour as the casualty fell and tripped up his allies.

A volley of plasma fire shot past them, one shot grazing Wolf's shoulder, far to close to Sloan's already scorched face. He glanced back. Thanks to Nikki's quick hack-and-slash, they had gain some ground. Sloan had begun to mumble, picking at her skin. She didn't even notice what was going on around her.

The third alley came up fast on Wolf's left. He could hear another patrol coming in from the right. If he had guessed wrong, they would be cornered. It would be over for everyone. He had time for a silent prayer before he threw himself into the alley, crashing into something heavy and solid. The impact threw him to the ground, almost underneath some kind of vehicle. He had the sense to roll under it for cover before Nikki landed heavily where he had been only a moment before. He grabbed her arm and dragged her under the vehicle. He rolled onto his back and found himself facing a hidden compartment buried in the trucks body. It looked just wide enough for the three of them.

Without really knowing what he was doing, he slid open the compartment door and lifted Sloan into it, followed by himself. Nikki copied him, then shut the door. The compartment was only high enough for them to lie on their backs. Wolf stared at her. The fear and desperation only showing on his face then.

"Did we…?" he started, but Nikki held a finger to her lips. Right, the compartment was metal, but that didn't necessarily make it soundproof. Instead, he listened. There was a heated discussion going on out side, and no one was speaking anyone else's language. The organic leader of the Hunter patrol shouted at the truck owners in Common, only to get a jumbled response of half a dozen different languages fired back at him at once. The exchange went on until the leader could stand no more. Wolf listened with satisfaction as he ordered the patrols back to their stations. His body only relaxed when the vehicle started moving.

"Oh my god," he muttered with a little laugh in his voice, "I can't believe that worked."

"I don't know how you knew, but you knew," Nikki agreed, the same elation in her voice. Wolf looked at Sloan. She was smiling too, but looked like she wasn't sure what she was smiling about. Wolf couldn't help but laugh.

"You know, a lot of people would have just left her," Nikki said.

"Sorry?"

"Sloan. Most people would have just handed her over, but you stuck with her."

"Of course," Wolf replied, the tone of his voice implying there was no other course of action. Nikki's smile grew wider, and for the first time Wolf thought it was genuine.

"She's lucky to have someone like you." The smile on Wolf's face faltered. He turned his head to look at the compartment ceiling instead of Nikki's face.

"So what, you don't think I'm the evil mercenary anymore?" His voice had an odd tone in it, one that Nikki did not pick up on.

"Nope," she said in a slightly joking tone. "So, I guess this means that your going to take Sloan and-"

"I'm tired," Wolf broke in, rubbing his face with his hand. Nikki fell into silence. Sloan rested her head on Wolf's chest with every intention of going back to sleep. Wolf decided that was a good option, and rested his head back against the metal floor.

A bang on the compartment's door made Wolf's head spring up. It felt like no time had passed, but from the groggy sensation floating around in his head he decided he really had fallen asleep. The door slid open. He wasn't sure whether to strike or not.

"Wolf? Nikki?" Wolf let out a breath. The voice belonged to Xannon. Nikki slipped out, followed by Wolf. Sloan managed to find her way out on her own, though with much difficulty. She was mumbling to herself but seemed a little more lucid. Wolf helped her to her feet. There was a small crowd gathered around, Chas and the others from the mission among them. Wolf never thought he would be so happy to see Panther and Leon again.

"What's happened to Sloan?" Panther asked, watching as she blinked continuously, like someone who was trying to stare into a very bright light.

"An infection threw her for a loop. She's been totally useless these last few days."

"Should've left her," Leon hissed.

"Nice to see you too," Wolf said sarcastically. Xannon threw her arms around both Wolf and Nikki.

"I'm so glad to see you made it. I was afraid I'd never see you alive again…" she held them both tightly for a moment, then managed to let go.

"Is everything alright here?" Nikki asked. Xannon stared at her. A silent exchange happened between the two, and the question was changed.. "Did we get everyone out?"

"Yes, there's a bank of retrofitted warehouses not to far away, everyone was moved, and not a moment to soon." Wolf didn't know what was going on, but it was only after their confusing conversation that he noticed the mood. Only Xannon had been smiling. Everyone else wore a sombre expression.

"What's happened?" He asked. Xannon turned to him like she hadn't realized he was there, despite her warm welcome. She was slow in answering Wolf, looking to Nikki for support.

"You'd best better go see for yourself," she told him sadly, pointing in the direction of her warehouse. Wolf half ran to the end of the road, turning the corner swiftly. What he saw took the bottom out of his stomach.

"It's gone."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Well, the final chapter has arrived! I want to thank everyone who reviewed, it's a great boost to see how many people like my writing. Special thank you to those who reviewed almost/ every chapter (*coughcough, FanBoy, cough*) :) I do have to warn that things are getting a wee bit crazy on my end, and there might be a small hiatus before the final instalment of Sloan's trilogy begins. However, I do promise that Point of No Return will be out on or before **January first, 2009**. Look for it, mark it on your calendars, and enjoy!

There was nothing before him except a smouldering pile of rubble. A few youths were picking through the debris, looking for what, Wolf couldn't be sure. Others were trying to put out small fires that still burned within.

"What happened, how did they find it?" he murmured to himself.

"My brother told them where it was," A voice told him. He turned around to face Chas, who had shown up behind him. His eyes were red from crying, and his body language said he was totally spent. Wolf shook his head, not understanding. Chas shrugged. "It's like he said, he couldn't hold out forever, not under their torture. He lasted long enough to give Xannon time to move the kids, then…" and he motioned to the warehouse.

"Then, Ave is dead?"

Chas answered with a noise that sounded like he was being strangled. He motioned to a bundle not far off, lovingly wrapped in a blue tarp. Wolf grimaced, not sure he wanted to see what was under the tarp.

"Is it...?"

"Ave," Chas whispered, hardly daring to say the name. His eyes locked on the bundle and they welled with tears again. "They burned him... with the warehouse..."

A ghostly wind blew through the group, chilling them to the bone. Wolf heard some of the children screech as the wind gave the flames new vigour. The fingers of tempest snatched at the blue tarp enshrouding Ave, and managed to pull it loose.

Wolf had seen a lot of horrific things in his career, but when he looked at the black, charred monstrosity that Ave had been turned into, he knew it was one of the worst. His face was twisted from pain and terror, his arms outstretched from being tied to the warehouse. Even though he had been burned to the farthest reaches of recognition, Wolf could identify signs of torture, torture that had to be deep and painful for the evidence to survive. Then, as one final, sickening touch, the word 'filth' had been carved deep into his chest. Wolf's face stayed neutral, so that it did not betray the wave of disgust and hatred that was swelling up in him.

"At least he was dead before the fire started…" Chas whimpered weakly. "At least, the one who examined his body said that he was dead before… before they…" Chas couldn't finish, could do nothing but collapse into sobs. Wolf did nothing, there was nothing he could do. He knew all to well the inconsolable feeling of sorrow that came with losing a sibling.

Nikki appeared, wearing the same neutral face that Wolf did. She watched silently as Xannon came and kneeled down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"He didn't die in vain, Chas. Your brother fended them off long enough for us to get the children safely to a different warehouse. He saved them all. You should be very proud of him."

"We'll go there now," Nikki said. Wolf grunted, not really sure what she was talking about. "The new warehouse," she clarified. "Chas has no family left, but a lot of people at the new warehouse know him. They'll take care of him during this."

"Sloan needs help too," Wolf agreed. He looked down at Sloan. She was looking around, as if she was trying to figure out where she was. "Let's get going, then."

Xannon had overheard their conversation and helped Chas to his feet. She pointed silently in the direction of the new warehouse. The entire walk there, Wolf could hear Chas's sorrowful muttering.

"There was five of us, five. And mom and dad. Now I'm the only one. They killed all the rest… My brother wanted to have kids before he died, you know, now there's no time left for those things... he would've had such nice kids, and I could have been an uncle… What am I supposed to tell his girlfriend? She might be pregnant, you know. We're not sure yet… I hope she is, then Ave can have his wish… he always wanted kids…"

"Chas!" a female voice cried out from the crowd that had gathered to welcome the new inhabitants of the warehouses. A pastel green feline with blazing red dreadlocks broke from the crowd to run and collected the broken young man. She had been crying too.

"Ave's girlfriend?" Wolf assumed. Xannon nodded.

"I already saw it all. It's terrible, just terrible." Ave's girlfriend took Chas from them and handed him to a group of young men, who took him inside to get some rest. She watched him go. "Ave and I had a big fight before he left for that mission. Thank the Maker I had the good sense to chase him down and put things right. I'd've never forgiven myself if that'd been the last conversation we'd ever had. And I got to tell him that I'm almost positive I'm pregnant so at least…" she choked and hung her head. "I don't know why I'm telling you any of this, I don't even know you. You must think I'm crazy."

"Hardly," Wolf replied, "But I do have to direct the conversation away from that, if it's not too insensitive of me."

"Oh, please do." Wolf drew the girl's attention to Sloan's arm.

"She needs to lie down," he told her.

"Zone fever?" she asked knowingly. Wolf nodded. "Okay, we've got a place for her." She took Sloan by the arm and led her away, seeming grateful Wolf had shifted the conversation away from her dead love. It wasn't until Wolf saw Sloan walking away that he remembered his thoughts of leaving her on Berman. Taking Xannon by the arm, he walked her to a secluded place where their conversation couldn't be heard.

"What's wrong?" Xannon asked, seeing the agitation on his face.

"It's about Sloan," he answered.

"About her being a Spec Ops?" Wolf was taken aback by Xannon's question.

"You knew?"

"I wasn't sure until you told me she was close with Nikki. You hid her barcode very well." The smile she gave him made him sick. She was smiling because of the effort he had put into protecting her, now he was trying to pawn her off.

"Well, if you know what she is, then you know she can't come back to Lylat with me. She's safer here, and besides, these are her people. I think she should stay with you."

The smile on Xannon's face died. She stared at Wolf for a few seconds, as if he would suddenly burst out laughing and tell her it was all a joke. But he wasn't going to do that, he just stared grimly at her. Slowly, Xannon began to shake her head.

"Wolf, for being so smart, I can't believe you got this so backwards," she murmured. She gestured in the direction of the children. "These are not her people. They will be if she stays in this system when you leave, but they aren't yet, and that's a wonderful thing. That means they haven't taken her soul, and stripped away her life and left nothing but an empty shell. Is that what you want for her? To be an automaton?" Wolf turned away, watching the crowd.

"And what if I can't protect her either? I have enemies too, you know. Enemies that will stop at nothing to get me." _I don't want to see anyone else die because of me._

"That is part of the profession you have both chosen."

"And if I leave her here, out of said profession?"

"You'd be cheating Sloan. This is what she chose for herself."

"She's 14, and besides, she didn't have much of a choice," Wolf replied bitterly, knowing he was just using excuses.

"If she is what Red Gen says she is, I highly doubt that. War is in her blood, either way she'd have no choice. At least with you she won't have to fight until she dies, she's a person to you." They stood at an impasse for several seconds, staring into each others eyes. Wolf tried to remember a time when he had been able to stare down those eyes. He couldn't, and why start now?

"Alright, but you can't say I didn't try." He sighed, but it sounded more like relief than frustration, relief that someone had actually talked him out of it. Still, an image of his sister was stuck in his mind. He knew what his real fear was, it was the fear of letting Sloan get close to him, then watching as she too was killed by someone trying to get to him. The two walked back to the group silently, Wolf's heart still in conflict.

Someone Wolf identified as Ave's girlfriend came running towards them as they neared the warehouse. The look on her face terrified him. As soon as she was within earshot he asked the million dollar question.

"Where's Sloan?"

"You mean she didn't come to find you? She was acting so strangely, I thought it might have been the fever. She fought me off and ran away. It was only a few minutes ago but she could be anywhere."

"Wait, wait, what are you saying?" Xannon asked. The feline looked from her to Wolf, and back.

"Lady Zindia, Wolf, sir, Sloan is gone."

XxX

_I can't hear anything, why can't I hear? And it's so bright, why is it bright? What time is it? My leg hurts. Is something biting my arm?_ A thousand shattered thoughts were bouncing around Sloan's ill brain, too fast to get a decent hold on. She couldn't remember anything that had happened in the last few days. Or maybe it was only hours that were missing. Had it happened at all? She remembered a glass chunk, an explosion, lots of blood. What they meant was lost in her brain fog. The ground didn't seem solid, like she was walking on Jell-o. The wind felt like razors on her face.

The only solid thing in her world was the muscular arm she was clinging to and the body that it attached to. She looked up, and almost lost her balance in the process. The person's purple eye was intent on something in front of them. She followed his gaze, and suddenly a feline woman appeared where before there had been nothing but dirt. Her mouth was moving, but no words came out. Sloan watched in amazement as her fur turned from green to blue to very bright violet, red, then back to green again.

"Hardly." Her person's voice boomed out like a hammer at dawn. It felt like the only real thing around her. She hugged his arm tightly, wanting to be real too. "But I do have to direct the conversation away from that, if it's not too insensitive of me." Sloan felt a tiny shift. She watched his other hand motioned to her. "She needs to lie down." Lie down? She didn't need to lie down, she needed to stay right where she was. She needed to stay with this person she was clinging too. It was as plain as… as something she couldn't quite think of, but would later. It obviously wasn't as plain to the rest of them, because she was handed off.

Losing her grip on him was like being wrenched off a rock and sucked into the undertow of a murderous ocean. She turned back, wanting nothing but to find him, to get out of the ocean before she drowned. Wait, could she actually feel the water, cold and clammy on her face? Was that why she couldn't see or hear? Something closed around her arm, and she ripped away from the snag.

Her mind broke the surface in time to see her person walking away with someone, she didn't see or care who. Her mind fixed itself on him. Get out of the ocean. She followed him, her limp hindering enough that she couldn't catch up. He and Xannon turned a corner. She scrambled after him.

After turning the same corner, she lost track of him. The water was beginning to come back over her, lapping at her shoulders. She tripped and fell into the dirt. She tried to make her clumsy limbs lift her back up to her feet. But which way was up? Everything was muddled.

"It's about Sloan." She froze. Her person's voice, she had heard her person's voice. Off to the left, she was sure of it. A wave of relief washed over her. He would save her, he always saved her.

"You knew?" There was a bit of talking that Sloan couldn't register. "Well, if you know what she is, then you know she can't come back to Lylat with me."

That was all she heard. The feeling of the water fell away. The rest of her senses fell away. Everything fell away. The words crushed her. She refused to believe what she had heard. The person… Wolf, his name was Wolf, couldn't just throw her away, not like everyone else she had ever known. He cared about her, he protected her from King…

She felt herself pick up off the ground, turn away from Wolf's voice, limp away. She didn't focus on where she was going. Wolf's voice filled every corner of her mind. She didn't know how long she walked, or in what direction.

She had just begun to dare to think of him as the father she never had. That was something she told herself never to do, that she would never find such a person. And as soon as she dared…

Suddenly, she felt tired. Her knees buckled. Kneeling down in the dirt, some of the feeling came back into her. She felt red hot tears spilling down her cheeks. She felt anger raging through her body, and wasn't with Wolf, but with herself. She was angry that she mistook Wolf messing with her and thought he cared.

"I though you loved me," she whispered into the night.

"A foolish assumption, who would love you?" the night answered. Her head jolted up, then wrenched back as a boot connected with it. She sprawled on the ground, knocked for a loop. Before she could get back up, she was shocked into unconsciousness by a Stun Rod set to max.

A black gloved hand reached out and gathered up a handful of hair, jerking her off the ground. A Kingish smile curled over a white face.

"Well, well, it seems my hunt is over."


End file.
